The Hilanov Prophecy 2: V Force
by VanillaREM
Summary: The Hilanovs are back, but so is Goadbwa, and this time they've got a new President at the helm! Will they succeed yet again, or will the new pres.?
1. Prologue

As you (should) know, this is my second full-scale Beyblade fic. In fact, it's the sequel to my first one, The Hilanov Prophecy, so this would be The Hilanov Prophecy 2: V Force. So, without further ado, let us begin!  
  
==============  
  
"Nine months and progressing as planned, sir."  
  
"Good. Let us have a look?"  
  
The scientist moved out of the way to allow a clear view for him. The man analyzed the object suspended in the middle of the reddish liquid in a large tube near the stone wall. The object was a young child, though not yet born. Its umbilical cord extended through the liquid to the platform at the top of the tube.  
  
"One more week's gestation and it's ready to be brought out into this world," the scientist added.  
  
The man stood back up at full height. "What about the other one?"  
  
"The female?"  
  
"Yes. Is she in the same league?"  
  
"Precisely. Since conceived at the same time, they are both, to our surprise, thriving well with no problems occurring or that we can see occurring."  
  
"You and Irina truly are geniuses. Without your leadership for your team of scientists, we would never have had this formula. But you're sure that their abnormal growth will stop when they're born?"  
  
The woman nodded. "Yes. We'll just have to make sure we keep giving them the formula for as long as we want them to grow. If they get a serving at every meal, their growth time should elapse one month into one day until we reach the desired age to begin training them."  
  
"Excellent. Any idea on names for them yet?"  
  
The woman glanced wistfully at the tube containing the unborn baby. "Well, Irina suggested that we have their parents name them, instead of giving them our usual scientific acronyms. The only problem with that is..."  
  
"Both of his parents aren't here and only one of hers is. Her father doesn't even know about this experiment, does he, so that doesn't help..." he concluded.  
  
"No." She stared absently at the floor, her eyes watering. "I just hope her father will live to see her..."  
  
The man reached out and extended an arm around her sulking shoulders. "That's the way life is. I'm truly sorry about your loss. She meant everything to me, too. At least Alexander, Rhea, and Samson are there to mourn her."  
  
"Anya never knew the actual truth about Alex..."  
  
"I now feel that I should have told her."  
  
The woman raised her head again. "Will the Hilanovs know?"  
  
****  
  
THE HILANOV PROPHECY 2: V FORCE  
  
****  
  
1. Prologue  
  
Receiving command...  
  
Searching databases...  
  
Search results: eleven megabytes found...displaying information...  
  
"Kenny here."  
  
"Don't forget the all-important Bit Beast!"  
  
"And Dizzi. So, here's the recap of what's happened recently. Last year, the Bladebreakers participated in the Russian World Finals, and they won with flying colours. Shortly after that, we found that the girl, Kochab that we had allowed to travel with our Bladebreakers team wasn't really who we thought she was. She turned out to be a girl from Kai's past at the Abbey and she was the leader of a team called the Celestial Myriad. We were embarrassed when we found that out, but learning that the other teams had also been deceived by the Myriad made us feel a little better..."  
  
"I knew there was something fishy about them all along, but does anyone listen to the Bit Beast trapped in the computer? No..."  
  
"Moving on... The Celestial Myriad and the Bladebreakers faced each other in a default tournament where we were defeated badly. The Myriad moved on to face a team called the Blade Sovereign, who were none other than Kai, Tala, Sarah, and Eva's older siblings. Of course, the Myriad won again, but then things got weird with the next team they faced after that; Vitality Extortion.  
  
"They were a truly powerful team that would do anything to achieve a win including harming the opposing Beyblader with their strange Bit Beasts which were the souls of actual humans, we later learned. The souls of Tala's father and both of Kai's parents, to be exact. All three were deceased."  
  
"If I may continue, Kenny? Vitality Extortion worked for a company called Goadbwa, and under the command of Boris' old colleague, Gilepse, they challenged Enrique, Eddy, and Kevin to a battle after which they stole their souls. At that point, the BBA and Biovolt syndicated to create one powerful force against Goadbwa Enterprises."  
  
"We found an old prophecy underneath the grounds of Balkov Abbey that suggested Kai, Tala, and Sarah as the ones chosen since the beginning of time to lead the fight against Vitality Extortion and Goadbwa. They became the ones that led us to victory after many difficult battles. Many trainees were lost on both side, including Spica, Telesto, and Kuiper of Vitality Extortion themselves. Ophelia and Gilepse on the side of Goadbwa were also lost, while on the side of Biovolt and the BBA, Kieran and Anya failed to return from the field alive. The Hiwatari family also gave us a scare, with Rhea becoming possessed by the extra soul lurking within her since she was seven years old. As for Voltaire, he was loyal to neither side, being the vice president for both major companies and then turning to Goadbwa by almost killing his own grandson and Sarah. But then Kai turned on him, and now we no longer have to worry about Voltaire. We were all quite shaken after Tala's numerous malfunctions."  
  
"But our venture wasn't over yet. After that, the Bladebreakers were confronted with the challenges of Team Psykick and the Saint Shields. What would they have done without Hillary, you and I, huh?"  
  
"It becomes hard to imagine, Dizzi. But now that we've faced King, Queen, Zeo, Gordo, Zaggart, Dr. K, Gideon and Dr. B, we're pretty much off the hook as far as we know. As for the Celestial Myriad, Demolition Boys, All Starz and the rest of them, they're in their home countries, resting, including Rhea and Samson. It sure would be nice to see them again, though-- things are getting boring here in Japan."  
  
****  
  
Dejected and tired, the black-haired woman sat staring out the plane's window. The tray of airline food lay in her lap, untouched. It would probably poison her, anyway.  
  
"How could he do that to me?" she muttered to herself as she watched the greenery below. "I was his best researcher. I could have helped that kid win that battle against the Bladebreakers. It's just unfair."  
  
She took her head away from resting it against the chair and looked straight ahead at the man's head in front of her. She reached into her purse and brought out a mirror and lipstick, applying it carefully to her lips. She examined her face in the small pocket mirror before closing it and turning back to the window.  
  
"Even though the company's gone down, I know he will have something for me to do in Russia. And even if he doesn't, he'll fire someone to make room for one precious to him as I...I can help him rebuild the company." Through the window, she saw the night lights of Moscow. "Though maybe I should have kept contacts with him over the time we've been away..."  
  
****  
  
"This is pointless. I can't concentrate." He dropped the pencil on the desk in front of him and looked at the small picture frame on his desk, hidden well so that only he would know it was there.  
  
He picked it up and stared at the smiling faces in the picture. They were all overjoyed and proud, as if they had just saved the world from ultimate destruction and were being praised for it, which they were. They were each still in bloodied uniform with horrible wounds that should have killed them, but hadn't.  
  
He set the picture down again, unable to look at it anymore as his eyes were becoming watery, and if anyone was about to march in, he wanted to be seen as merely doing his homework, not sulking over his past. He sat back in his chair and raised his head to look directly at the ceiling, closing his eyes to blink away the tears.  
  
"Kai?"  
  
Kai brought his head back down and whipped around in his chair to face the boy that had just entered through the doorway. The boy closed the door behind him and moved towards where Kai sat.  
  
"What were you doing just sitting there and staring at the ceiling? I thought you said you were doing your homework?"  
  
Kai moved closer to the desk and hunched over his work once more. "I am. Leave me alone."  
  
"I just wanted to ask for your help. I don't quite understand this math question, see, and I knew you would know, so-"  
  
"I'm busy, Wyatt."  
  
"You weren't busy a moment before."  
  
"I was thinking."  
  
"About what? Don't you daydream enough in class?"  
  
Kai didn't reply, but kept staring at his work, unblinkingly. He didn't intend to write anything, nor was he reading it, he just needed a place to stare at until he could think of something sensible to say.  
  
Wyatt noticed his sudden reticence. "Is there something wrong, Kai? Was it something I said? Because you know I wouldn't mean to say anything hurtful to-"  
  
"I know."  
  
Wyatt almost sighed in relief. "Oh... Good. Uh, well, then I'll just..." he swivelled away on the ball of his foot and sauntered with his math paper towards the door. "I'll just leave you in peace, Kai. I'll... see you later..."  
  
The door closed quietly behind him, as Kai continued to stare absently at his papers. As he breathed in, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest where the gunshot wound his grandfather had given him had once been. He winced in agony and looked at the picture again.  
  
"Maybe there is something wrong with me..." he grunted.  
  
****  
  
"That one looks like an elephant, doesn't it?"  
  
"Cat."  
  
"Since when do cats have huge ears?"  
  
"It looks like a cat!"  
  
"Elephant!"  
  
"Cat!"  
  
"It's a capybara, alright?" Philemon sighed to quiet the quarrelling Elvin and Eva.  
  
"What's a catybaba?" questioned Elvin. "You're being nerdy again, Philemon."  
  
"Capybara," Philemon corrected. "It's the largest species of rodent."  
  
"Wow, Philemon, and I thought that brain of yours was only taking up space in there," Eva jested with a smirk.  
  
For a while, the four were quiet as they lay on their backs watching the clouds pass overhead. Eva then broke the reticence with a long sigh.  
  
"It sure is good to be back in Canada, isn't it? It was too cold in Russia for me."  
  
Elvin chuckled. "You call that cold? What a wimp-"  
  
"Well sorry, but we're not all as cold-resistant as you, Elvin," Sarah said flatly.  
  
The three turned their heads to her.  
  
"What's up with you?" Elvin demanded.  
  
"The usual. Her psycho problems again," Philemon groaned.  
  
Eva leapt to her defence. "Hey, leave her alone, guys! If you two rats have noticed, she's been down the past few days! You all know I have, too."  
  
"Down about what? She's no longer with Kai and Tala? What about him? And Eva-you don't seem so down. In fact you seem to be happier these days than when he was alive." Elvin taunted.  
  
"I'm trying to put my past behind me. The only way I can keep myself from crying all the time is to think of the happy things and not Kieran's death before my eyes."  
  
"Tell us exactly how it happened again, will you?" Elvin pressed.  
  
Philemon glanced to Elvin and interrupted Eva's sigh with, "Who's 'him'?"  
  
Elvin smirked and closed his eyes, remembering that day, obviously taking Philemon's hint to drop the depressing subject. "You know, that team that we battled a couple of weeks ago-the one that was travelling around the world to learn about different cultures and blading styles?"  
  
Philemon and Eva stared blankly upward for a moment before it dawned on them.  
  
"Oh! Of course!" Philemon relished with a laugh.  
  
Eva's sullen face became a grin and she looked to Sarah. "How could I forget something like that?"  
  
Sarah blushed and glared angrily at the clouds. "Come on, you know it didn't mean anything."  
  
"That's what they all say!" the three chorused in unison.  
  
"There had to be some reason why he wished you good luck and not me!" Eva added.  
  
"Because she's a guy magnet, as you said, Eva!" Elvin chanted, rolling over onto his stomach and resting his chin on his arms.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Euh, Elvin, you realize the 'guy' category also fits us," Philemon pointed out dully. "And believe me, that's not why I'm on the team."  
  
Elvin replied without hesitation. "I'm a girl, not a guy!"  
  
Eva gave him a disgusted look. "You're a disgrace to girls everywhere, then..."  
  
"But seriously," Philemon continued, sitting up and crossing his legs. "Not every guy would do that, you know. He could have just been a lady-charmer like that flirt, Enrique-but then why didn't he do the same to Eva?"  
  
"Leave me out of this!" cried Eva.  
  
"Why? Because you're jealous?" Elvin jeered.  
  
"Ew, no!"  
  
Philemon adjusted his glasses. "Let us think of why the 'travelling' team functions in the way they do by recalling the day this incident happened. First of all, we were Beyblading among ourselves, minding our own business."  
  
(A/N: One of those flashback things- Philemon and Eva are standing on either side of a dish and battling in field with hill and playground and it's sunset)  
  
"Go Pegusar! You can take him!"  
  
"We can't lose to a girl, Lephar!"  
  
Philemon continued with his retelling. "When all of a sudden, these four kids came up to us and said we looked like pretty good bladers."  
  
"The blue-haired one that we supposed was their leader extended his hand towards Sarah to challenge her," added Elvin. "And she agreed, so they fought."  
  
"And of course, Sarah won," Eva joined in.  
  
"Um-hm," Philemon nodded. "Unbelievable as it is."  
  
"Hey! You almost lost your battle!" Sarah interjected.  
  
"Then Eva battled the red-head and only girl, Elvin, you battled the tall black-haired one, and I battled the shrimpy blond. We each won our respective battles with no problems."  
  
"Then they told us their life story," Eva groaned. "They said their names were Kane, Salima, Jim, and Goki."  
  
"Those were some great battles, I don't think we've ever met anyone as strong before," Salima congratulated.  
  
Then Jim intercepted. "Hey-haven't I seen you before? Your face looks familiar," he said, pointing to Sarah.  
  
"Who? Me?"  
  
"Yeah, now that you mention it, you're right, Jim. She was on TV, or something, wasn't she?" concurred Goki.  
  
"Oh, now I remember! She was one of those Hilanov people! The ones that saved the world from utter disaster!" exclaimed Salima. "Wow, to be in the presence of someone that important!"  
  
"Me? Important? No, that was just by chance I was one of the prophesied ones..." Sarah drawled in embarrassment as she waved her hand dismissively.  
  
"Yeah-sure!" Eva said with a smile.  
  
"At that point, Kane stepped forward to shake hands," explained Philemon.  
  
Kane moved closer to the Celestial Myriad and extended his arm. "As Salima said, good battle."  
  
"The rest of the team did the same, and we each shook with the one we battled."  
  
Elvin chimed in. "Yeah-and then it happened."  
  
Eva had sat up by now, leaving only Sarah on her back to stare at the clouds. "Sarah was about to let go of Kane's hand but he didn't let go and- "  
  
"Yah! Be quiet, all of you! It meant nothing!" Sarah yelled, leaping up and running down the hill, away from them.  
  
The three each leant toward the middle and said in one hushed voice altogether, "He kissed her!"  
  
****  
  
He lay sleeplessly awake in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He tore his eyes away from it and turned to where the source of his teammates' snores came from. Each were sound asleep in their beds except for him. He fixed his eyes on the wall, where shadows of flying birds cast themselves from the light of the window. The shadows took different shapes than birds as he stared at them.  
  
"Anya..." he whispered. He glared with tearless eyes for a while longer at the symbolic shadow before blinking. "It's hard to believe she's really gone," he continued in the same quiet tone. "I never really knew her, come to think of it, so why am I so emotional now? The first time I remember meeting her was soon after Kai and Sarah ran away from the Abbey all those years ago... She was the one who came to me and acted like my big sister, though I didn't know it at the time. We were only close friends for a short time before I began to find her annoying and Ian chased her away. Then, what a shock it was six years later when I found out that she really was my older sister. She became one of the deploys, and she helped me through a lot before, during, and after the battles.  
  
"But I'll never forget the talk that I had with mom and her the day I short-circuited and had to undergo reprogramming. She said, 'Don't worry, Mom. I'll always be here for you. I'm not going to die on you.' But she broke her promise. She died. A Hiwatari-Voltaire Hiwatari killed her. One bullet to the head and she was out like a light, leaving Samson, mom and I to weep over her grave behind Balkov Abbey. She broke her stupid promise. I didn't make one, and I'm still alive. Why-I don't know. Seems I'm only here to waste away-no one to live for-nothing to live for. Tomorrow I'm going to wipe myself off this earth by taking one of the guard's guns and-"  
  
He was interrupted by a loud crash that seemed to shake the very floor of the Abbey. He sat bolt upright, glancing at the other three, miraculously still sound asleep.  
  
Tala leapt out of bed and looked out the window. Across the courtyard, screams could be heard and something bright and orange was rearing in the downstairs window. "Fire..."  
  
He ran out of the room, throwing the door open. He looked from side to side in the hall, trying to think of the fastest way to get to the testing labs where the distress was. He took off to the left where the staircase was a few doors down. One trainee came out of his room and stepped in front of Tala unconsciously.  
  
"Hey! Watch where you're going, kid!"  
  
The boy looked up groggily. "Oh... Sorry, Tala. I was just woken up by a loud sound and I came out into the hall to find out what it was..."  
  
"I think there's a fire in the Abbey, but don't go spreading it around in a panic. I want you to wake up everyone on this floor, just in case, okay? I'm going to go check it out."  
  
***  
  
"Here we are, miss..."  
  
"Thank you," she said gruffly as she unbuckled her seatbelt, gathered her things and stepped out of the helicopter. Her long hair whipped around in the zephyr of wind caused by the rotating blades as she watched the aircraft rise and move out of sight.  
  
She scrutinized the area. The ground was snow covered, and a gust of icy air made her clutch her coat closer to her with her single hand that wasn't occupied with her luggage. She advanced slowly forward across the patterned stones towards the castle that loomed before her. Coming to the large wooden doors, she put her luggage down and reached for the button on the intercom.  
  
"This is Ms. Galsky speaking. I'm here to see Gilepse."  
  
She took her finger off the button and stood back to await a reply, but none came. She pressed the button again. "I repeat, you have Ms. Galsky at your front doors. I'm here to see Gilepse."  
  
Again, she stepped back and held back a temper for a few seconds before she pounded an angered fist against the door. "Open up and let me in!"  
  
When the innards of the building remained silent, she picked up her luggage, reached for the doorhandle and yanked on it, being utterly surprised when it flew open in her grip. She stared at the brass handle in wonder for a moment before giving a short, "hmph" and strolling regally inside.  
  
She gazed around the circular room at the tapestry that covered the walls. It seemed to depict the events of all that had happened to the company since its founding in the 1980s. There were two people shaking hands to mark its beginning, then numerous inventions, revolts, and triumphs, and then, nearing the end of the fabric were recent happenings- what looked like a war. The war was between two sides and two sides only- this company itself and then another that she couldn't quite recognize except that they seemed to be the "evil" side. They seemed to be just normal Beybattles until her eyes strayed to the very end of the tapestry- impalements, beheadings, bullets, and drownings-and they all seemed to be from this side, too.  
  
"This must have been why the company fell... Gilepse went into a depression after seeing so much death occur from... hey... wasn't this in the news a couple of months back?" she muttered to herself. "Something about the Biovolt Corporation and Goadbwa Enterprises having a row over the right to use human souls as Bit Beasts... They must've gone all-out over it. It all seems pointless to me..."  
  
She looked to the second door that seemed to lead to the rest of the castle. "Maybe I'll find some civilization there," she mused, picking up her bags again and opening the heavy wooden door, again, with ease. Just to be heard, she slammed the door noisily behind her.  
  
She listened to its echo reverberate off of the red sandstone walls, but there were no footsteps or signs that anyone had heard and was coming. She dropped her bags to the floor, creating another loud noise. "Hello? Is anybody in here?" she yelled. "I'm here to speak to Gilepse and I am Katherine Galsky, his daughter!"  
  
~~~~  
  
Thank you for reading, NOW REVIEW! (sorry, been watching to much Azumanga Daioh lately) 


	2. Recollection

Thank you to Shinigami and Cold-Heritage for reviewing. Cold-Heritage, your eagerness brings tears to my eyes. No one's ever been so interested before...  
  
=========  
  
2. Recollection  
  
"So...How are you getting along without your older brother?" Elvin asked, trying to strike up a conversation with the reticent Eva.  
  
"Okay, I guess..."  
  
Elvin glanced at her for a moment before looking to the rest of the class as they played European Team Handball. "Haven't had such a good laugh since that team's visit, huh?"  
  
A smile suddenly crept across Eva's features. "Yeah," she giggled. "I guess I've got Kane to thank for bringing me out of my misery."  
  
"Half of it at least," Elvin added as the whistle blew for the team rotation. He got up along with Eva and they ran to the middle of the court as Philemon and Sarah flopped down in their seats. Both were gasping for air exuberantly.  
  
"I can't believe we're getting creamed out there!" Philemon exclaimed once he caught his breath. He leant forward slightly, craning his neck to get a good look at both teams.  
  
Sarah glanced down at her physical education uniform. They wore light grey shirts with the school's blue logo across the front and their name and class across the back. They also had blue shorts, with the white logo on the bottom of their left leg and white socks and running shoes.  
  
"You're normally a good player. What's got your attention today?"  
  
"Your terrible playing."  
  
"You're too kind, sometimes, Philemon."  
  
"I know. Thank you."  
  
The two watched Eva and Elvin play for a while in silence. "Heard anything from the Bladebreakers lately?" Sarah asked.  
  
"Why are you asking me? Kenny is the only one we really could have kept in touch with, and Elvin has his E-Mail. If he has been holding conversations, I don't know about them," Philemon replied curtly.  
  
Sarah contemplated the rafters of the gymnasium thoughtfully. "It's been practically a year. We've all moved on, in our lives, as Beybladers. Wonder if we'll ever meet up again?"  
  
Philemon leant back against the wall. "Dunno. We could always go to Japan to see them. Or we could visit the All Starz, they're even closer. You never know—one of the Majestics might make a trip to Canada here. Or there's the team with your boyfriend on it."  
  
Instead of throwing a fit as she normally did, Sarah just glanced at him irritably. "You're just lucky I'm too tired to hurt you."  
  
"Come on, Sarah. It's blatantly obvious what you two have for each other," Philemon began, shrugging his shoulders as if it were so simple.  
  
"Or maybe have had with each other!"  
  
The two looked up. They hadn't noticed the whistle blow, and Elvin and Eva flopped down beside them. Eva slapped Elvin's arm. "You're disgusting!"  
  
*****  
  
The black haired woman saw a head poke nervously around the corner. Another woman with short black hair and a white lab coat appeared, looking rather shaky and wary of her.  
  
"Y-Yes? How may I help you, ma'am?"  
  
She narrowed her eyes at the nervous wreck. "Who are you?"  
  
"My name's Lori. I...I took over as the head scientist of Goadbwa for Ophelia Seki. And... you are Miss Katherine Galsky?"  
  
"That's correct. But there's no need to be so shy. This whole place looks like it's in a shambles. Why?"  
  
"The company...It...collapsed. Hardly anyone works here anymore. I'm the only one left in charge of the operations," Lori replied.  
  
Katherine was silent for a moment, looking Lori up and down. "What about the vice president of the company?"  
  
"You mean Deneb? He's dead. He was killed in the final battle by Kai Hiwatari. Just as well, we would have fired him anyway for betrayal to Goadbwa. He was two-timing us with Biovolt and killed by his grandson."  
  
"Kai Hiwatari...That name sounds familiar. Who is he, exactly?" inquired Katherine.  
  
Lori cast her gaze to the ground, and landed on the strange woman's clothing. She wore a red skirt and top, brown nylons, red boots, and a white jacket with yellow linings. "He's the third prophesied one of the Hilanovs. Blue hair, grey eyes. Leader of the Bladebreakers..."  
  
"Bladebreakers! That's it! Those kids are bothersome, let me tell you. Oh, but... if the vice president's dead, then what about the president? My father, Gilepse?"  
  
Lori swallowed hard to hold back the tears and ended up raising her head to scowl at Galsky. "Dead."  
  
Katherine's eyes widened, and she swallowed as well. "Dead? How?!"  
  
"He was also killed in the final battle. He fell from a cliff, sharp rocks at the bottom impaled him rather nastily. Or so we at Galsky Castle heard. Many were killed in the battle."  
  
"So I hear," Katherine said. She glanced around nervously, thinking of what to say, and now what to do. Her father was dead. It was all that she wrote. With herself out of a job, and him being her only living relative, she seemed to have nowhere to go. Unless...  
  
She looked up and met with Lori's wanful gaze. "Listen, I have some dreams I'm sure that my father would've wanted me to fulfil. That is, if you were to allow me to do so."  
  
"I'm sorry, Ms. Galsky. We do have our limitations..."  
  
"My proposition is that I take over as head of the company, if that is alright with you. If it is revenge you seek against the Hilanovs, it is revenge I shall bring. I have some of my wrath to let out as well. Those Hilanovs are as good as dead with me to lead the Enterprises."  
  
Lori stared back wordlessly, but then she smiled for the first time in months. "That would be wonderful. The few remaining at Goadbwa would greatly appreciate it. Your father would be proud of your undertaking, Ms. Galsky." Lori extended her hand.  
  
She met Lori's hand and shook it. "Thank you, Lori. And please, just call me Dr. K."  
  
*****  
  
Tala charged headlong around the corner, but then turned back around just as quickly on seeing the sentry. He peered around the corner, watching as a boy in dark clothing glanced around. HE didn't seem to be armed, but Tala wasn't about to take any chances with this unfamiliar blue-eyed intruder.  
  
Then Tala glanced downward to see the guard that had been posted at the room, knocked out cold. He lay prone on the stone floor. A yell from the infiltrated room made Tala jump and finally leap out.  
  
"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing here?" he called out to the boy.  
  
The boy, who was wearing a baklava, turned to Tala. "I should ask you the same question. Shouldn't you be in bed, trainee?"  
  
"Not when the Abbey's inhabitants are in danger."  
  
The boy pulled out a Beyblade and shooter. "Should've listened to old Boris, kid. We've come to get something and get it we shall!" He fired.  
  
Tala, without his own Beyblade, dodged the shot and aimed a fist for the boy's stomach. Though it only grazed him, the boy was still knocked down. He cradled his stomach for a moment and then looked into the room. "Look out, you two!"  
  
Tala looked up and saw two more in the same garb. His suspicions had been confirmed; there was a fire, and it was consuming things quickly. On the floor lay one of the Biovolt scientists, knocked out as well.  
  
The two other intruders froze when they heard their teammate's warning. They were carrying what looked like a large incubation tube between them. Floating within the green liquid was a small body, much like that of a baby's. But what was it? There was another one suspended in another tube on the side, about to be burnt by the fire.  
  
"I'll ask this again. Who are you and what do you want?" Tala ordered.  
  
The second intruder with brownish-red eyes scowled back at him. "What does it look like? We're here to spread happiness and joy!" Her voice was rather high, like a girl's.  
  
The third one cringed their light purple eyes and looked up as the sprinklers finally turned on. They began to douse the fire.  
  
"Give us back what rightly belongs to Biovolt! I won't let you leave this room with that tube!" Tala exclaimed, opening his arms wide to bar the way.  
  
"You don't even know what we're stealing, do you, Romanov? Just butt out of things that don't concern you!" a female voice scoffed from behind. Tala felt something hard hit the back of his head. His vision was consumed by black and he fell to the ground.  
  
The brown-haired girl threw the bar aside and motioned for the other three to follow. The purple-eyed and green-eyed two held the tube between them as the four made their way for the exit and towards their getaway car.  
  
*****  
  
Sarah stopped in mid-step as she felt something cold come into contact with the back of her head forcefully. She didn't bother turning around. She knew who it was.  
  
Philemon dragged behind her, preparing another snowball. But then he whipped around as another snowball flew past his head. Elvin had thrown it, but had taken an unconscious step while doing so, landing him in a puddle of mucky water.  
  
"Sure! Don't wait for me!" Eva called, hurrying up to the three.  
  
"You're the one that dawdles," Philemon replied. Both Eva and Philemon looked to Elvin, who was trying to pry his shoe from the mud. "Ha, ha! What're you going to do with your uniform, now?" Philemon jested.  
  
Elvin's foot pulled out of the muddy puddle with a squelch. It was true. His black dress shoe and pant leg were now brown and soaked.  
  
"And zip up your jacket. You'll get pneumonia," Eva added.  
  
Elvin zipped up his navy blue bomber jacket, concealing the white dress shirt, blue tie, and undone black jacket with grey neck. The boys also wore a black belt with gold buckle, and black dress pants and shoes. The girls' school uniforms had the same jacket, shirt, and tie, but instead they had black skirts, white nylons and black dress shoes. Whether you closed your jacket or not was optional, Sarah and Elvin often preferring not to.  
  
"Well, then, are we going to eat or what? I'm starving," Elvin asked, trying to ignore the bitter cold against his leg.  
  
"Last one there's a rotten egg!" Philemon cried, taking off at a headlong run, backpack and all. He took a shortcut through the high mounds of snow that the winter had dumped over the country.  
  
"No fair! You're faster than the rest of us!" Eva objected.  
  
"We should do our homework first," Sarah advised, running awkwardly because of the extra weight on her back.  
  
"Don't be such a nerd, Sarah! We've got to have some fun!" yelled Elvin as he ran ahead of her.  
  
Philemon leapt out of the snow drift and right in front of Elvin. "All work and no play makes Sarah a dull girl!"  
  
The four came to a halt when they reached their destination; a pizza shop in a small plaza close to their school. Philemon was the first to enter, the other three trailing behind. He sat down at their regular table, slinging off his bag and winter coat. Elvin was next, then Eva, and last Sarah. They did the same as he had and tried to catch their breaths.  
  
Sarah immediately took out one of her textbooks and began reading, keeping her head down. Eva looked at her and sighed. "Sheesh, you're studious lately. We're all in the same class, care to tell us what test is coming up?"  
  
"And maybe share the answers with us? Sharing's nice..." Elvin chimed in.  
  
Philemon looked around the restaurant. "Is your brother working here today?"  
  
"Who? Samson? Yeah..." Sarah muttered without looking up. She then paused, and stood up out of her seat. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?" With that, she shuffled away from the table.  
  
Once she was out of earshot, the three leaned into the middle. "Have we planned everything, then?" Philemon inquired almost in a whisper.  
  
Eva nodded. "All in check. All we need to do now is pack our bags and tell her about it."  
  
"Mr. Dickenson, nor the Bladebreakers know anything about this, right? It's still going to be a surprise?" assured Philemon.  
  
Elvin nodded this time. "I haven't said a word. Hopefully this will bring her spirits back up."  
  
"May I take your order?"  
  
The three looked up to see Samson standing before them. He held a pen and paper in his hand, and he was wearing the company uniform, but he didn't have the same joy about him as he used to. He stood there, as if extremely tired.  
  
Elvin surveyed him up and down. "Gee, Samson, you don't look so hot. What's got both you and your sister so down lately?"  
  
Samson shook his head to clear it. "Nothin' much..."  
  
"How are you supposed to attract customers like that?" Eva questioned, a smile breaking across her face.  
  
Philemon glanced at Eva and then to Samson. "Eva's right, for once."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"She's been trying to put her past behind her. Her own brother, and your two friends. We've all got to move on," Philemon consoled. "Or is there something I'm missing here?"  
  
Samson sighed. "It's not about their deaths and the absences of friends, no, but that makes the situation worse. Our parents have been quarrelling quite a bit lately. When our dad makes the long distance call to Russia once a week, we end up hearing yelling. And that's saying a lot, since our dad isn't prone to anger. He almost never yells, but with our mother it becomes relentless. We're afraid they're going to divorce, and Sarah's been crying over it. She's been brought up in peace her whole life and having to deal with this sort of hate is unnatural for the both of us."  
  
"What is the whole argument about?" implored Elvin, turning around in his seat to face him.  
  
Samson tilted his head to the side wistfully. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure anymore. It's been going on for about a month or two now, and I remember all of a sudden hearing my dad yell as I worked on my homework. I walked out of my room to see Sarah sitting on the staircase hesitantly. When I asked her she said he was talking to our mom in Russia. I think I remember hearing them say something about Tala, but as I said, I'm not sure anymore."  
  
The Celestial Myriad gave each other thoughtful glances before focusing their attention on Samson again. "Tala has really caused a problem among the Langleys, hasn't he?" Eva said rhetorically.  
  
"One little thing and your parents go ballistic," Elvin agreed.  
  
Philemon gave him an annoyed look. "I wouldn't exactly call two thirteen year olds necking a 'little thing', Elvin."  
  
"We're fourteen, now. We can all put our pasts behind us, remember? Besides, we're probably never gonna see the guy again. And it was a goodbye thing. You know how the Italians and the Greeks kiss when they say goodbye?" Elvin countered innocently.  
  
Philemon leant on his arms over the table at his teammate sitting across from him. "Think about it. If you had a daughter and she was having an affair before she even entered high school, what would you do? And the Italians and the Greeks don't make out when they say goodbye."  
  
"Elvin would probably kill her boyfriend," Eva chanted, resting her head in her hands, elbows propping her up on the table.  
  
Elvin laughed. "You're right, I would!"  
  
Philemon leant back in his chair and smirked. "I've proven my point."  
  
"So, then. Care to tell me what you guys were so hush-hush about?" Samson asked, a smile finally creeping across his features.  
  
Philemon glanced around for signs of Sarah. "We're planning a trip to Japan. We're hoping that the Bladebreakers will be able to bring us out of our depression."  
  
"To Japan? In the middle of the school year?"  
  
"We're smart," Elvin said dismissively. "We can catch up with our work."  
  
"If we're all so smart then why do you want test answers?" interrogated Eva with suspicion.  
  
Philemon began explaining again. "Thing is, this is a surprise trip. No one knows about this except the three of us, our parents, and Mr. Langley, whom, by some miracle allowed Sarah to go. It would be a great help if you didn't tell her about our plans."  
  
"No problem," Samson replied. He raised his head to see Sarah sulk back towards the table and sit down. She looked up to him and smiled. "So, then...What'll it be?" Samson said, suddenly raising his voice to avoid suspicion.  
  
"The usual," Sarah answered.  
  
"A medium with pepperoni," Elvin began.  
  
"Mushrooms," Eva chirped.  
  
"And extra cheese," finished Philemon.  
  
*****  
  
"My aching head..."  
  
"You just woke up back in bed with this bandage around your head?" Ian tried to confirm.  
  
Tala looked to Ian as he rubbed the back of his head ruefully. "Yeah. I just remember them breaking in and then knocking me out."  
  
"What could've been in those tubes?" questioned Spencer rhetorically. "And why would they be so important to them?"  
  
Bryan stood up and paced the room. "You said that they were incubation tubes and that it looked like a young child inside, right?"  
  
Tala nodded at his teammate.  
  
"A child? What would they need a child for?" Ian asked, watching Bryan come to a stop in front of Tala sitting on the bed.  
  
"One thing's for sure, this isn't any ordinary child if none of us were told about it."  
  
Spencer, Ian, Bryan, and Tala walked down the corridors toward the mess hall, still puzzling over what secrets were being kept from them. They passed by a doorway, Boris stepping out just in front of them.  
  
"Good morning, my children."  
  
"Good morning, sir," the four chanted.  
  
Boris motioned to Tala. "May I speak with you a minute?" Tala followed Boris inside the room without question, glancing warily at the other three.  
  
The room was the east lab infirmary, no doubt about that. Where he had become a cyborg. He looked around cautiously as he stood in front of a high-tech computer and Boris shuffled around the room, gathering some papers.  
  
Tala waited patiently as Boris moved to the counter and then advanced back towards him. Boris held out a sheet of paper to the boy with what appeared to be two different graphs. Tala took it from the man's hand and examined the information on it.  
  
He was puzzled. "What is this, sir?"  
  
Boris stood up to full height and folded his hands behind his back as he always did. "You're the head of the primary division, remember? Well, until we can find a new staff member, anyway, but... This is the tally for the training regimen that the primary trainees have decided on." Boris turned to walk away. "I'll leave it in your hands-I trust that you'll know how to put it to your own use." His tone all of a sudden became hushed. "How are those developments coming?"  
  
Tala glanced up and into Boris' grey eyes, as he didn't currently have his glasses on. "Fine thank you, sir. I appreciate your willingness to return me to my original state."  
  
Boris smiled and then walked halfway out of the room when he froze in mid-step and turned on his heel, suddenly remembering something. "Ah, yes, Tala, something I almost forgot. Tatiana!"  
  
Tala looked up from the paper he had been focusing on to see a young figure enter through the doorway. It was a young girl, with bluish-green eyes and brownish-red hair that trailed down just past her shoulders. She had bangs slightly similar to Tala's and her hair was tied into a single half-ponytail at the back of her head. She wore an orchid jacket with white- tipped sleeves, a white skirt, white nylons, and black boots.  
  
She skipped up to Boris with a wide smile of her face, making her look stunningly like Anya with her perkish nature and similar physical appearance. Boris placed either hand on her shoulders amicably.  
  
"This is Tatiana, a new trainee to the Abbey. As you can see, she'll be placed in the primary division, and I expect you to work closely with her, Tala," he said, giving Tatiana a quick smile before departing. "Remember-I want your consultation of the tally results as soon as possible," he called as he left the control room.  
  
The two had been staring for a moment at where Boris had left their sights while Tatiana whirled back to face Tala. "Hi! My name's Tatiana."  
  
Tala blinked and lowered his head to look her dully in the eye. His tone was flat. "So I heard. Hi."  
  
"Surely you're more lively than that?"  
  
"Sometimes," Tala sighed, looking away.  
  
Tatiana grabbed his other hand hanging limply at his side and tried to pull him away from where his feet were planted in the floor. "Come on, then! I'm going to teach you how to live life to the fullest, Tally!"  
  
"Whatever... Wait-what did you call me?"  
  
"Tally. That's your name isn't it? That's what Boris called you."  
  
Tala bent down to be at a serious eye-to-eye level with her. "No, my name is Tala, not Tally. Boris was just handing me a tally of votes-that's not my name. And before you get any ideas, it's not Talc, either, despite popular belief."  
  
"Talc?"  
  
"No, Tala."  
  
"Talon?"  
  
"No, it's Tala, you little no-talent!"  
  
"Talent?"  
  
Tala stood back up. "No! Tala! T-A-L-A! Say it with me! TA-LA!"  
  
"Ta-la."  
  
"Yes! Finally! Now get lost."  
  
Tatiana looked at him oddly. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Go to your class. I can't help you anymore."  
  
Tatiana turned and skipped out of the room. "Okay! Goodbye, Tally!"  
  
Tala growled and subconsciously ripped the sheet in half.  
  
*****  
  
"When Voltaire was spying on Biovolt for us, he said that he learnt of a new experiment they were planning on conducting, and the timeframe the finished product would be ready in," explained Lori as she led Dr. K through the halls of Biovolt. "Therefore, we were able to plan a way to get a hold of this little experiment. We have currently sent out a team to retrieve the item now."  
  
Lori led her around a corner, but jumped back, the thieves having appeared in front of her. The purple-eyed and brown-eyed ones were still toting the tube between them. The tallest one stepped forward.  
  
"Lori, ma'am, we are back with one of the requested items. I am sorry to say that we were careless in our operations and allowed a fire to break out, thus arousing another trainee in the Abbey. He impaired our ability to get the girl," she explained.  
  
Lori scowled up at her, Lori being short compared to both the girl and Dr. K. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Monica. When I say I want both, I want both. Meanwhile, take off your facial covers so that our new president, Katherine Galsky may see your faces."  
  
"New president?" the boy asked. "Who? Her?" he pointed to Dr. K, who withdrew at the doubt in his voice.  
  
"That's right, the very daughter of your old president, and you shall respect me in the same way," she returned.  
  
One by one, the infiltrators removed their masks. Lori motioned to each one in turn. She motioned to the green-eyed leader, who appeared to be in her late teens. She had her brown hair pinned up behind her head, and a single wisp of bangs in the middle of her brow. "This is Monica. She's the leader of one of Goadbwa's product teams." Lori then indicated the blue eyed boy. His black bangs covered one eye, and the rest of his jet-black hair trailed just down his neck. "And Zachary, a Beyblader with extreme potential." Next was a the purple eyed girl with short, blond hair. She had bangs and two trailing tufts of hair on either side of her head, covering her ears. Her hair was shorter than Zachary's. "Then there's Victoria, very shy but obedient." The last was another girl, with the same innocent stare as Victoria. She had the brown eyes and long green hair with bangs that parted in the middle of her forehead. Her hair was tied in low pigtails with red bands. "The fourth member, Amy, a novice to the enterprises, but a prodigy nonetheless."  
  
Dr. K surveyed the four up and down before looking to Lori again. "You said that this was only one of the Goadbwa product teams. What about the others?"  
  
Lori looked back to the four. "This team is called the Black Death. They were a team formed just before the final battle against Biovolt and the Hilanovs. They were survivors, and because of their excellent condition, were sent out on missions while the rest of the company recuperated. Since those Biovolt snipers came, even control room attendants have needed intensive medical attention. But about these other teams, the only other product team that Goadbwa has successfully trained is Vitality Extortion."  
  
"Vitality Extortion?" Dr. K echoed, trying to roll her tongue around the name. "Who were they?"  
  
"They were the ones that led Goadbwa in the fight against the Hilanovs," Zachary interrupted. "There were three Hilanovs and three in Vitality Extortion, so the numbers always fit perfectly."  
  
"So where is this Vitality Extortion?" asked Dr. K, glancing at the other members of Black Death.  
  
"They're dead," Amy said simply. "The Hilanovs killed them in the final battle. Kuiper was decapitated, Telesto shot and Spica drowned."  
  
Dr. K looked to Lori. "But you said that you planned to use Goadbwa in a retaliation war against the Hilanovs. How is that possible if they're dead?"  
  
Lori smiled. "Victoria, I would ask that you show Miss Katherine Galsky here a little something her father invented while he was alive."  
  
Victoria, not returning the smile nor replying verbally, nodded and continued down the hall the Lori had been leading the woman down. Dr. K made to step forward, but paused when Zachary extended his arms to her.  
  
"Allow me to take you baggage, ...uh...What should we call you?"  
  
"What did you call my father?"  
  
"'Sir', or 'Gilepse'. He didn't like being called 'Mr. Galsky'."  
  
"Very well. To make things easy, just call me Dr. K." Zachary took her luggage as she followed Victoria down the corridor.  
  
~~~~~~~~~ So just what has Goadbwa been concocting during its recuperation time? Will Dr. K be able to take over the second phase of the war and avenge her father's death? Will Samson and Sarah's parents stay together or will fights over Tala break them apart? Is Tala really what started their argument in the first place? Exactly who is this strange girl, Tatiana, and where did she come from so suddenly? And why does Elvin need test answers if he's so smart? Find out in the next chapter of THE HILANOV PROPHECY: V FORCE!  
  
Next chapter: We Meet Again 


	3. We Meet Again

Sorry this chapter took sooo long... I've been obsessed with anything Sonic the Hedgehog, so I've been busy playing Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance 2, and Sonic Battle. Man, the time I sacrifice for story research!  
  
3. We Meet Again  
  
"Tally!"  
  
Tala closed his mouth, which he had opened to speak, sighed, and turned around. "What do you want?"  
  
"Come on, Tal—she can't be that bad, can she? Be a little more friendly," encouraged Ian.  
  
Tala clenched his teeth to retort, but Tatiana interrupted.  
  
"Let's eat lunch together!"  
  
Tala looked to the other Demolition Boys, who were sitting at a table in front of him. Bryan and Spencer didn't answer, but Ian shrugged his shoulders. Tala sighed again. "I guess. Don't you have any friends your own age?"  
  
"Boris told me to stay close to you." Tatiana replied innocently, the look in her eyes pleading.  
  
"You can sit with us," Tala said begrudgingly, looking away and folding his arms.  
  
Tatiana reached out and hugged his waist tightly before scurrying over to flop herself down beside Ian.  
  
After lunch, Tatiana followed Tala out of the cafeteria, keeping close to his heels. "Tally! Where are we going, now?"  
  
"'We're' not going anywhere, but you are going to class while I have Beyblading training."  
  
Tatiana continued to bounce about him energetically. "But we have to stay together!"  
  
Bryan watched the two walking slightly ahead as he kept up with Spencer and Ian. "Is it just me, or does Tatiana remind you quite a bit of Sarah?" he muttered to the two.  
  
"Add more heaping teaspoons of sugar, and you get Tatiana," added Spencer.  
  
"Yeah, and you remember how Sarah and Tala used to fight like this when they were young. Wonder if these two will turn out the same," Ian wondered aloud. "Not to the same extent, but they could become good friends."  
  
"You guys are too good to me!" exclaimed Sarah, clasping her hands as she stepped off the plane.  
  
"We know," Elvin groaned, dragging his luggage down the stairs.  
  
Eva leapt off the last few steps and stretched her arms wide. "Fresh air! We can exercise now!"  
  
Philemon stepped down from the staircase and glanced around the runway. "I don't know about you guys, but I've got the sudden urge to blade against some of these Japanese Beybladers."  
  
Sarah flexed her arms. "I'll agree to that. Let's go find our hotel, first, though!"  
  
Checking in at the airport, then taking a cab to their hotel, the Celestial Myriad found their room on the fifth level with no trouble. Philemon inserted the card key and opened the door to the suite.  
  
There was a window balcony with a wonderful view of the harbour behind the hotel. There were two king-sized beds, a nighttable for each one, and a TV set within a mahogany cabinet.  
  
Eva took a deep breath in. "Smell that? It's like summer flowers!"  
  
"More like perfume," Sarah explained. "I heard that many fancy Japanese hotels have perfume wafting throughout their suites. I see that it's true!"  
  
Elvin pushed past the three and dumped his luggage on the bed closest to the window. "This is my bed. You three can share the other. It should be just about big enough!"  
  
Philemon also stepped forward and threw his baggage on the same bed. "How about we get the beds, and you get the floor?"  
  
Sarah and Eva placed their bags on the other bed. "I vote for him to be outside the room," Eva said.  
  
The Celestial Myriad unpacked their things and experimented with the appliances in their room for about an hour before heading outside, Philemon locking the door behind him.  
  
Victoria led Dr. K through the halls wordlessly. When she came to the designated room, she reached out and unlocked the door with a key withdrawn from her pocket. She opened it and allowed for the doctor to enter first.  
  
Dr. K stepped inside and surveyed the room, her eyes coming to rest on three tubes filled with green liquid in the corner. Suspended in them seemed to be ghost-like forms of human bodies. She stepped over to them cautiously, bringing her face close to the tube of each one.  
  
"What are these?"  
  
Victoria continued to stare at her back silently, a wanful and apathetic look on her face. She stood unmoving in the doorway, hands clasped in front of her.  
  
On hearing no reply, Dr. K whirled around and glared back at the girl. "Well? Aren't you going to answer me, Victoria?"  
  
Victoria shook her head slowly.  
  
Dr. K advanced on her. "What do you mean you're not going to answer me? Are you deaf? Can you not hear me, or do you simply refuse to answer?"  
  
"Go easy on Victoria, Dr. K. She's a mute."  
  
Dr. K looked up to the doorway where Monica had the stolen tube in her arms. She watched as Monica moved around her and to another tube container just beside the three ghostly forms. "A mute?" Dr. K repeated suspiciously.  
  
"Yes. She lost her tongue in the final battle. Hasn't been able to talk since—very hard on her. She used to be one of the most chatty trainees Goadbwa had," replied Monica, turning around and placing her hands on her hips.  
  
Dr. K turned back to Victoria, who smiled as if laughing silently this time. "So what exactly is this thing you took from Biovolt, then?"  
  
Monica turned to face the tubes. "A human experiment. Biovolt created two of them, one of them being a back up. We took their primary fighting weapon. It's time Biovolt got a taste of their own medicine."  
  
"Then what about these ghostly figures?"  
  
"They're souls," Monica said, a smirk creeping across her lips. "You see, while your father and his head scientist, Ophelia were alive, they developed a machine to clone souls. It did exactly what its name implied. But when Biovolt infiltrated during the final battle, they sabotaged the device, and our only blueprints of the machine were within Ophelia's head, and she's taken that secret to her grave. But before they died, clones of the souls of Vitality Extortion were made."  
  
"But how is it possible to contain an energy body?"  
  
"You do know about Bit Beasts, don't you?"  
  
"Of course I do."  
  
"Then how do you think they remain in their Beyblades? Each was soul was captured within a Bit Piece, so technically they're Bit Beasts."  
  
"Where are their physical bodies?" Dr. K asked.  
  
"In cryogenation chambers. But like their souls, we had to clone their bodies."  
  
"Why couldn't you reuse their old bodies?"  
  
Lori's voice interrupted and explained from behind. "A week or two after the final battle, we sent the Black Death out to retrieve all of the bodies. But we were unable to find the bodies of Ophelia nor Marduk. Gilepse's corpse was so badly rotted, it was hardly recognizable. It was impossible to pry from the impaling rock in one piece, so we had to leave him to that resting place. As for the bodies of Vitality Extortion, they were too badly damaged to be useful anymore. Like Gilepse, they were decaying and had the addition of many mortal wounds. Their uniforms also showed signs that they had been searched for something. We thought it best to just leave the bodies as someone might have implanted a heat-sensitive grenade, knowing that we would return on a scouting mission."  
  
"But in Russia's cold climate, how could the bodies decompose that quickly?" grilled Dr. K.  
  
Lori shrugged. "Why that is is anyone's guess. I agree with you that it doesn't make any sense, but what I report is true."  
  
"So then, what exactly are you planning to do now?" questioned Monica.  
  
Lori turned to leave the room again. "Monica, you did get the formula, right?"  
  
Monica held up a bottle of some blue, transparent liquid. "Check, Lori."  
  
"Very well, you know what to do with it." Lori took three Bit Chips out of her uniform pocket and whirled back around to the three tubes containing Vitality Extortion. Placing one Bit Chip each on the small pedestal in front of each tube, she pressed a button on the same pedestal and waited.  
  
They watched as the three souls began to sink down through the bottom of the tube slowly, and then create their image in the middle of the Bit Piece on the pedestal. When this process was complete, Lori lifted the Bit Chips out again and dropped them in her pocket once more. "Dr. K, I would ask that you now follow me to the cryogenation chambers. You have a lot to learn about this company before it's fully yours."  
  
"What happened to Zeo again?" Tyson asked carelessly as he walked, hands clasped behind his head.  
  
"He said something about extra training at the Phoenix, I think..."Ray trailed off in reply.  
  
It was sunset, and the Bladebreakers had been heading for their usual final training for the day beside the river. Often, they'd find dozens of kids ready and waiting there to battle them, just for a chance to see the world-famous Bladebreakers and test their skills against them. As the six crossed the bridge today, they heard yells and orders of Beybattles already in progress. This was normal, but the Beybladers weren't.  
  
Tyson took his hands from behind his head and squinted at the bladers in the distance. "Hey! I've never seen those kids before. They're stealing our turf!"  
  
Hilary moved up and squinted beside him. "They look like another Beyblading team to me, and they seem to be beating those kids as easily as you do."  
  
Ray, Kai, Max, and Kenny joined them at the front lines. The look of recognition finally dawned on Kenny's face and he leapt up in excitement. "Come on, guys! Don't tell me you don't remember them?"  
  
"Remember who?" Hilary asked innocently, turning around to face him.  
  
"You wouldn't remember them, Hilary, but Tyson, Max, Ray, and Kai should."  
  
The Bladebreakers turned around again to the team at the river's edge and then back to Kenny. "Sorry to say we don't," Max answered for them.  
  
Kenny rushed down the hill. "They're the Celestial Myriad!"  
  
They hurried after him and came to a stop just behind a kid who was battling Elvin. They observed the battle rage for a couple of seconds before the young kid's blade flew away and spun to a stop.  
  
"This is too easy!" Elvin laughed, and then raised his head to the Bladebreakers. "Hello. Sorry, did I steal your amusement?"  
  
He now wore a black T-shirt with a white hood and the same two strings dangling and white lining on his sleeve. He still had his blue moon belt and now he had blue shorts that reached down to his knees, white cloth wrapped around one leg of it. He wore white socks and blue and black running shoes. He had white armbands with blue lining at the wrist and elbow.  
  
Rather stunned, Tyson glanced to each one in turn. Philemon stood behind and to the right of Elvin. He had a navy blue sweatshirt with a high neck and star zipper. His sleeves had been folded up to just below his elbows where the inside of his shirt was a lighter colour. He had his red moon belt and orange shorts that reached down to his knees. He wore blue boots that went three quarters of the way up his calves. Then on his left wrist was a red wristband.  
  
Eva stood on Elvin's left. Her hair was now tied up with a green elastic and she wore a rainbow scarf that reached down to her knees, both ends of the scarf trailing down her front. Her trenchcoat was sleeveless and hoodless and now down to her ankles. She still wore the same white pants, but her green moon belt hung loosely on her hips. She had white cloth bandaged around her upper right arm and left wrist along with black trainers on her hands. Her running shoes were white.  
  
Then, Tyson's eyes came to Sarah, standing stolidly beside Eva with folded arms and glaring intently at something behind him. She wore a white vest that went down to her ankles. It had the same high neck as before, but without the black halfway down. She now wore a black long-sleeved shirt underneath. On her arms were purple armbands, a silver wristband holding them in place from above her elbow to her wrist, where it became frilly. Her skirt was also black and came halfway down her thighs, a slit in the front where red became a part of it. Her vest parted at her waist where her purple moon belt was. She wore black boots that ended just above her ankles, white soles, a metal strip holding a parting together. Tyson noticed that she still wore the same star necklace and that her eyes seemed more grey than green.  
  
"Well? Aren't any of you going to answer?" Philemon urged, following up the silence that Elvin's comment seemed to bring.  
  
"Who are these guys?" Hilary asked, placing her hands on her hips and striding in front of the Bladebreakers. "Isn't anyone going to answer me?"  
  
Eva stepped forward, extending her hand. "My name's Eva Temagami, who are you?"  
  
She turned around and met with Eva's hand. "Hilary, grade eight class president. Pleased to meet you."  
  
"This is Elvin Tremblay, Philemon Ivujivik, and our team leader, Sarah Langley. Our team is called the Celestial Myriad," Eva explained, gesturing to each in turn.  
  
Hilary clasped her hands together and looked at the four hopefully. "Oh, you're a Beyblading team as well? Do you have any of those Bit Beasty- thingys? Are you any good at Beyblading? Have you won any championships?"  
  
"Sounds like Hilary's a true blading fan, now," Max jested.  
  
"But she can't blade for beans," Tyson added, refolding his arms behind his head.  
  
"At least I'll have an actual job when I'm older, Tyson, because I'll have been on time for school!" Hilary retorted.  
  
Elvin looked to Philemon. "They sure fight a lot like you and Sarah. Wonder if there's some sort of connection?"  
  
Eva continued to speak. "Yeah, we all have Bit Beasts. Mine is a winged horse called Pegusar, Elvin's is a ram called Ariamar, Philemon's is a hare named Lephar, and Sarah's is a fox named Fovular. Each of our Bit Beasts is based on one of the constellations. Suiting for our team, don't you think? We're the Canadian champs, and we did win the Default International Tournament last year. Does that count for greatness?"  
  
"I suppose you can't be picky when it comes to Beyblading, huh?" Hilary asked.  
  
"Are you trying to defame the Celestial Myriad?" Sarah had finally spoke. She unfolded her arms and stepped forward.  
  
"No, but if that's how you want to look at it."  
  
"If you can't blade, I wouldn't exactly be scoffing at the moment. Take a look at who's holding the cards."  
  
"You're good at being sarcastic. Do you practise at home?"  
  
Sarah refolded her arms and wore a smug smirk. "Will your impression change if I say I like being spontaneous?"  
  
Hilary mimicked the action. "Mustn't be good at schoolwork, then?"  
  
"I'll have you know I hold consistent Honours of the top rank."  
  
"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I guess."  
  
"You'd only know if you'd read one, that is."  
  
Hilary suddenly became frustrated, unable to think of a comeback. "What? What are you saying?!"  
  
"All I'm saying is that you don't look too brainy yourself, so practise what you preach."  
  
Tyson glanced at Kai, then at Sarah, then at Kai again. "Do you guys like, take lessons from each other or something?"  
  
"Yeah, 'cause this is getting freaky since you two sound so alike..." added Ray.  
  
Sarah and Kai locked eyes. "Good to see you," Sarah greeted with a stiff nod.  
  
"Oh come on!" Elvin exclaimed, cutting between the two. "We know you want to share a more 'intimate' greeting than that!"  
  
"Elvin..." Kai muttered with a scowl. "Don't push it..."  
  
Tala looked at the closed door again and thought about what he was about to do, weighing the pros and cons in his mind. He would be leaving everything behind-all he had known his whole life. He was born at this Abbey, lived and breathed here for more than thirteen years. What about his few friends- The Demolition Boys. Boris-the man who had given him all the skills he had learned throughout his time here. What about his mother-Lutka-and his sister-Anya? Lutka was the only family he had left since Anya's death. And Anya had been buried within the Abbey and in the tomb of the Hilanovs.  
  
Then there was Tatiana—he didn't know who her parents were, nor did he want to know. She was annoying, and that was all that mattered. Getting away from her would relieve a lot of his stress. Though her origins were also suspicious; she had Kai's determined eyes and Sarah's colours.  
  
He would leave them all behind, he thought as he pushed on the heavy doors. If he lingered any longer, the new guards would arrive and he'd lose his chance for another twelve hours. The wooden doors creaked open, and he caught his first cold breaths of freedom. He shouldered his bag so that it was more stable as he held it in his right hand, slung over his shoulder. He moved and planted his first step across the threshold of the Abbey's doors when he flinched on hearing someone call out.  
  
"Tally!"  
  
Tala whipped around. "What do you want?"  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"Out," he replied as he took another step outside and turned around.  
  
"Did Boris send you?"  
  
Tala paused to think for a moment. "Yeah... Yeah-he did. He told me to go out, and never come back."  
  
"Boris wouldn't say that."  
  
"Yes he would, and I intend to obey the order. See ya."  
  
"Take me with you!"  
  
"No."  
  
"Take me with you, Tally!" she repeated in an exasperated cry.  
  
Tala felt a chill come over him and so he stepped back inside and closed the door. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with her. "Look, where I'm going is a dangerous trip-one that little girls such as yourself aren't apt for completing."  
  
"But you'll get hurt if you go by yourself."  
  
Tala scoffed. "Oh, and I suppose you'll protect me from the Baba-Yaga that we'll encounter in the woods?"  
  
Tatiana hesitated and looked away from him, not knowing how to counter such a comment. "Well, I want to go with you because I need you."  
  
Tala was surprised. "What do you mean by that?"  
  
Tatiana swivelled her head back to him, angry tears welling up in her eyes. She lunged forward and threw her arms around him, knocking him off his squatting position and to the floor. "What will I do without you to help me around the Abbey? You're the one that scares off the bullies! They don't tease me when you're with me!"  
  
Tala sat on the cold floor, propping himself up with his hands so that he wouldn't fall flat on his back as the girl sobbed into his shoulder. He stared at the wall as he had six years ago when Sarah had hugged him and cried in the same form of a goodbye. Now that he thought about it, Tatiana was a lot like Sarah in a lot of respects. But not enough for him to say yes.  
  
He placed his hands just under her arms and pried her away from his body, holding her at arm's length and staring sympathetically into her moist eyes. He smiled a sad smile. "Listen to me, Tatiana. It will me safer if you were to stay here at the Abbey with Boris. If those boys are bullying you, then tell Boris. He'll sort them out, but I have to go."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"To see some old friends." Tala slid his legs from sprawled out on the floor in front of him and stood up, dusting himself off, all the while watching Tatiana's eyes water again.  
  
She threw her head back in an all-out bawl. "TAKE ME WITH YOU!"  
  
Tala covered his ears in surprise at the unexpected outburst. "No! I can't! Boris would kill me!"  
  
"TALA WON'T TAKE ME WITH HIM!"  
  
"No, you don't understand! STOP CRYING!"  
  
That only made her scream even louder. Tala staggered about, covering his ears as much as he could, but she was too loud. "Oh, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet!"  
  
Still, Tatiana continued to cry. Tala stopped moving around and sank to the ground in one spot. "Yargh! If you don't stop crying soon, I'm going to start!" he whined with a yell after.  
  
"Down here!"  
  
Tala took his hands away from his ears and looked down the darkened hall. He leapt up and clapped a hand over Tatiana's mouth. "Shh! Be quiet..."  
  
He listened as footsteps neared down the hall, and voices of what sounded like the next guard shift approaching. He glanced at her and shook his head. He caught sight of her sad eyes, and he was instantly reminded of Sarah. Tatiana's greenish-blue eyes were like those of Sarah and reflected the same feeling that had been in Sarah's eyes before Tala and Sarah had experienced that intimate moment in the halls of Biovolt eight months ago. Just like Sarah's-would he say no to her?  
  
"Fine! You can come, so long as you don't misbehave yourself!" he whispered, taking his hand away from her mouth slowly.  
  
"Yay! I get to go with Tala! Don't worry-I'll be as good as gold!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Then shush up, will you?" he whispered annoyedly again as he took her arm in one hand and snatched his bag in the other. Without another word, they squeezed out through the door and made their way across the Abbey courtyard to the large gates.  
  
Tala pushed his weight against them when they wouldn't budge. "Come on, open, you stupid door!"  
  
"The voices were coming from down this way!" exclaimed Victor as he rounded the corner and hurried down the corridor towards the main doors. Nikita followed closely behind.  
  
"Someone left the door open!" Nikita exclaimed, for even though Victor had been ahead, Nikita had moved faster and had seen the small crack in the doorway first. He pushed it wide open and surveyed the courtyard. "But there's no one outside."  
  
Nikita turned to Victor, who just shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe it was just the wind."  
  
Lori stood with Dr. K in the room with the incubation tubes. They both watched as Monica, Amy, and Zachary wheeled in three cryogenation gurneys. Monica, Amy and Zachary all stepped out of the way as Lori and Dr. K moved forward to the steel cases.  
  
Lori turned to Zachary. "Do you have the modified Bit Beasts?"  
  
He reached into his pocket and gave the Bit Chips to her. She examined them in her hand as Dr. K peered over her shoulder to look at them. "What did you change about them?"  
  
"These aren't the originals, but copies from the soul cloning machine that Gilepse left for us. The originals must be with the Hilanovs—but that's only a hypothesis for the moment as we're not positive. The originals were made of the souls of Xenia Hiwatari, Kaji Hiwatari, and Sergei Romanov. Xenia became Revenost—Spica's Bit Beast, Sergei became Poltost—Telesto's Bit Beast, and Kaji became Doppelgost—Kuiper's Bit Beast. Since Bit Beasts are souls, human and animal souls are interchangeable. Since our initial experiments on human Bit Beasts, we were able to record more powerful readings than with animal Bit Beasts, and therefore have continued to use them. Every soul become some form of a ghost if it doesn't die within the body, and we have used that to our advantage to create unique Bit Beasts," Lori explained.  
  
"That explains a lot, but doesn't answer my question," Dr. K retorted.  
  
Lori glared at her. "All in good time, ma'am. We've no need to rush just yet." Lori pushed a button on the side of each gurney and the top steel casing slid open to reveal Spica, Telesto, and Kuiper being thawed from their frozen sleep. Lori continued her explanation. "We've changed these Bit Beasts through soul fusion—a Biovolt innovation. This allows two souls to become one, therefore we've combined two different types of ghosts to create one stronger."  
  
Lori took the first Chip and held it up to Spica's body. A purple light streaked out of the Bit and into Spica's body, then returned to the Bit. "For Spica, her Sacred Spirit is now Revebanost—a revenant banshee."  
  
Amy moved to Lori's side and handed her a black Beyblade. Lori handed her the Bit and Amy fit it to the blade as Lori proceeded onto Telesto. The red light entered and exited the brown-haired boy's body. "Telesto receives Poltafrost—the poltergeist afreet."  
  
Again, she handed the Bit to Amy and Amy placed it in a grey Beyblade. Kuiper was the last to receive his soul. The blue Bit Beast zipped out and back in, giving him back his cloned soul as the other two Beasts had done. "Last, but not least, Kuiper's new Bit Beast is Doppalost, the doppelganger alu."  
  
As Amy put Kuiper's Bit back into his blader, Dr. K eyed the bodies curiously. "Goadbwa seems to know a lot about ghosts. What's an...afroo?"  
  
"Afreet," Lori corrected. "It's an evil spirit of Arabic origin. It's the soul of a murdered man that is out for revenge. Rather suiting for Telesto, we found."  
  
"And what about an...alu, I think you called it?"  
  
Lori nodded. "You're right. It's an Assyrian human-like spirit that likes to hang around in caves, ruins, and abandoned buildings. It looks just like a regular human being but with missing body parts. Though I've never met one, they're said to consume the bodies and souls of people that stray close to them."  
  
Dr. K shuddered at the thought. "Are you sure these kids should be handling these types of Bit Beasts, because if not, I know of this rock that-"  
  
"They'll be fine. They always have, and always will be. Now, Amy, Monica, and Zachary, I would ask that you take their thawing bodies to the infirmary where we can run an analysis on the states of the bodies," interrupted Lori. She whipped to face Dr. K. "Now, I would ask for your first official orders. What do you want Vitality Extortion to do once they've woken up?"  
  
Dr. K stared at her in confusion for a moment before she smirked. "I have a seek-and-destroy mission for them to fulfil..." she said smugly.  
  
============  
  
Again, sorry about how long it took to write, and if some things are out of sync with each other as if one event happened twice, etc., I'm also sorry. I've practically forgotten what I wrote and the plot for the story so I'm digging these things up again (good thing I wrote them down!) 


	4. Attack of the Clones

4. Attack of the Clones  
  
Elvin sat on the bed watching TV and propping himself up with his arms. He watched the reporter point to various areas on the screen with disinterested eyes.  
  
"And tomorrow's weather will be sunny but with cloudy periods and a high temperature of 27 degrees. That concludes your weather for this evening. And now back to the main desk." The man finished.  
  
The camera panned to the main desk where three anchors sat. One shuffled his papers again with a grave look. "Thank you, and this just in, we've reports filing in from Russia. It turns out that a group of Beybladers has been attacking various Russian villages throughout the country..."  
  
Suddenly Elvin's interest was caught. "Hey, guys! Come take a look at this!" Philemon stopped fiddling with his blade and moved to the edge of the bed at which Elvin sat, Eva put down the clothes she was sorting and crawled across the bed, and Sarah rushed from the bathroom to the TV, the toothbrush still hanging out of her mouth.  
  
"Eyewitnesses have recounted that small villages have been totally devastated with no survivors. These attacks have been widespread, indicating that they have a quick mode of transportation..."  
  
At this point, the four looked to each other, each with a concerned but confused look on their face.  
  
"Eyewitnesses have also confirmed that there were only three, all looking around the age of fourteen. Some have even claimed the three to be the team of Vitality Extortion. The Beybladers Kuiper Varuna, Spica Hyakutake, and Telesto Cibaru were the mascot team for Goadbwa Enterprises, an international Beyblading manufacturer. However, these reports have been ignored as the team passed away during a battle last year with the Hilanovs of the Biovolt Corporation," he said, the screen flashing the pictures of the three as they were mentioned. "It is believed that they are searching for something, though people are unsure of what. If Russia doesn't hold what they are looking for, they would most likely move on to surrounding countries. If you see them, we would ask that you not approach them and alert authorities as soon as possible. They are marked as armed and extremely dangerous. We shall keep you updated as soon as new information comes in."  
  
Elvin turned off the TV with the remote and turned to the others. "So what do you make of that?"  
  
There was silence until Philemon spoke. "It's impossible. They're long dead. I don't see how it could be them."  
  
Eva glanced thoughtfully around. "I don't know. You can clone bodies, right? So maybe it could be their bodies, but their minds are different."  
  
The floor caught Elvin's interest. "I guess. But maybe they were never actually dead and made a miraculous recovery...Or they could be androids."  
  
"Come on!" Philemon grumbled. "I doubt Kuiper could recover from decapitation. Eva's idea is more plausible than your androids as well. Goadbwa just doesn't have the technology to build androids."  
  
"How do you know that?" Eva asked, not wanting to turn down Elvin's idea.  
  
The three looked to Sarah, whose mouth still held the toothbrush. "Well? What about you, smartie?" Philemon asked sarcastically.  
  
Sarah rushed to the bathroom, cleaned out her mouth, and hurried back. "Sorry... Anyway, I too, agree with Eva's idea."  
  
Eva made a peace sign in front of Philemon's face and smiled.  
  
"Remember how Kai took Spica's soul during the battle at Lake Baikal, yet when Goadbwa infiltrated Biovolt, Spica was her normal self again. Before she died, Spica told me about some sort of a soul-cloning machine that Goadbwa had developed. She said that when her soul was taken, they had created a clone of it and fed it back into her body. My assumption is that they made both soul clones and body clones of the three and they were brought back to life, theoretically."  
  
There was silence until Elvin turned his head to Philemon and Eva. "That would make sense, and if Spica said that herself, then it must be true."  
  
Philemon glanced suspiciously to Sarah. "I'm not so sure. So she just flat-out told you?"  
  
She nodded. Eva shrugged. "It's the only logical explanation. Besides, does it really matter? We should just be careful and tell Mr. Dickenson and the Bladebreakers tomorrow morning."  
  
"Right," came the reply.  
  
"How are they doing this morning, Lori?" Dr. K asked as she strode across the room.  
  
Lori whipped around, surprised to see her new boss suddenly turn up. She turned back to the monitor slowly. "You've seen the news reports haven't you?"  
  
Dr. K folded her arms and grinned, her eyes glued to the destruction on the TV screen. "Yes, and I must say, I'm impressed. Those three really have potential..."  
  
"Exactly why Gilepse hand chose them from hundreds of trainees."  
  
"Yet they still haven't found the 'Hilanovs'?" Dr. K asked, annoyed.  
  
"No, ma'am."  
  
Dr. K turned to her angrily. "They should have at least found Kai! I know where he is for a fact. You mean to tell me that you didn't tell them about Kai?"  
  
"I know what I'm doing, Dr. K."  
  
"But since I'm president, I'm now calling the shots!"  
  
Lori kept her eyes to the keyboard, still calm even though she was being yelled at. "Any one of the Hilanovs is practically harmless by themselves, which is why we're trying to locate Tala and Sarah. We know that Tala trains at Balkov Abbey, Biovolt's headquarters..."  
  
"Then why isn't Vitality Extortion there?"  
  
"That I don't know and am trying to find out."  
  
"What about this Sarah?"  
  
"We don't know about her. All we know is that her mother, Irina Langley, works as the operations director at Biovolt and that Irina lives in the Abbey, but Sarah doesn't live with her. Instead, she lives with her father—wherever he lives in the world."  
  
Dr. K began tapping her foot. "There has to be an easier way to find them. But for now, just send Vitality Extortion to Balkov Abbey."  
  
With that, she turned on her high-heel and left just as swiftly as she came.  
  
"Yes, ma'am."  
  
Tyson yawned and stretched his arms, almost knocking Hilary at his side. "Come on, Mr. D! Why'd you have to wake us up so early in the morning?"  
  
"The early bird gets the worm," Kenny said, opening Dizzi to take down what Mr. Dickinson would have to say.  
  
"Besides, the earlier you wake up, the more time you've got to eat breakfast," Hilary added.  
  
Tyson stopped stretched and suddenly perked up. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that! So what did you want to say to us?"  
  
Mr. Dickinson stood up from his desk, looked at the clock, shook his head, and strolled over to a TV set in the corner of his office. "I've something to show you. You may have seen this last night, but I feel I must bring it to your attention once more." Turning on the VCR, the Bladebreakers' eyes were glued to the screen.  
  
"Thank you, and this just in, we've reports filing in from Russia. It turns out that a group of Beybladers has been attacking various Russian villages throughout the country..." the news anchor started.  
  
Once the report was over and the Bladebreakers were clearly left dumbfounded, Kenny closed his laptop and stood up. "Mr. Dickinson, that cannot be Vitality Extortion."  
  
"It's impossible!" Tyson agreed, leaping up—having recovered form his shock.  
  
"What? Someone care to fill me in here?" Hilary asked, annoyed.  
  
"I'm sorry, Hilary—we'll explain in a moment," Mr. Dickinson said sadly before locking serious eyes with the others. "Bladebreakers—I wish I could also talk to the Celestial Myriad—Sarah would probably be a big help to us right about now. She did seem to get the closest to Goadbwa, but in the meantime, Kai—would you happen to know anything about this at all?"  
  
Kai leant back against the wall and folded his arms. "Sorry, Mr. Dickinson. I know just as much as you do. The only thing I can say is that I know for a fact that Vitality Extortion is dead. I didn't see Telesto's death, but I saw Kuiper's, and I definitely saw Spica's. As well, Gilepse and Voltaire are dead, so I've no idea who would be in control of Goadbwa, now, if in fact Goadbwa was still in charge of Vitality Extortion."  
  
"Oh...That's right...You...killed Spica, didn't you?" Max asked hesitantly.  
  
Kai replied with a stiff nod.  
  
"The Celestial Myriad...That was the team we met yesterday, right?" Hilary asked, finally piecing this foreign tongue together. "The one with that stuck-up leader?"  
  
"She's not stuck-up," Max began. He paused to think his words out. "Just...um...once you get to know her she's really nice..."  
  
"She just doesn't warm up to new people easily," finished Kai.  
  
Tyson winked at Hilary and grinned impishly. "Of course, Kai should know about her..."  
  
"Leave him alone, Tyson, this is serious," Ray warned, having spoken up for the first time since they had entered.  
  
Mr. Dickinson interrupted. "Um—You said something about seeing the Celestial Myriad yesterday? They're here in Japan?"  
  
"Yeah," replied Tyson. "They came because they wanted to cheer Sarah up or something like that...But we saw them yesterday down by the river."  
  
"Do you have any idea where they are now?"  
  
"Not a clue..."  
The door burst open.  
  
"I do, now," Tyson said after turning around to see Eva standing in the doorway with the other three close behind her.  
  
"Morning, Mr. Dickinson! Oh..." The smile disappeared when she saw the Bladebreakers staring back at her. "Hello, Bladebreakers!"  
  
"Morning..." came the unenthusiastic reply.  
  
Sarah squeezed past Eva. "Good morning, everyone. I'm sorry to say that I come here with bad news." She noticed Hilary glaring back at her. "And half of it is that Hilary's here..."  
  
"Hey!" she protested, leaping up and shoving her face in Sarah's. "Some nerve! You know, Kai said that if—"  
  
Sarah ignored her and continued to lock gaze with Mr. Dickinson. "As I was saying, Philemon, Elvin, Eva, and I saw a report on TV last night—"  
  
"About some Vitality Extortion that was attacking Russia and you wanted to know what was going on," Hilary interrupted, smirking and folding her arms.  
  
Sarah glowered at her in bewilderment. "Yes...That's right."  
  
Mr. Dickinson shook his head and sat down at his desk again. "I'm sorry, my dear, but I only know as much as you do. I was hoping you could tell us something."  
  
Philemon pushed past Eva, who was still standing in the doorway. "From what we can gather, our best guess is that Goadbwa made both soul and body clones of Spica, Kuiper, and Telesto before they died. They then fused both body and soul to 'revive' them, or so to speak."  
  
"Soul clones?" Kenny repeated suspiciously.  
  
Elvin finally pushed Eva to one side. "Yes, back at the battle at Lake Baikal, Spica's soul was taken by Kai, but she was just fine when they infiltrated Balkov Abbey. Goadbwa has developed some sort of machine to make the clones, from what Spica told Sarah, anyway."  
  
"Maybe my Uncle knows something," Sarah suggested. "With him living in Russia and everything, and him being the focus of Goadbwa's wrath..."  
  
Mr. Dickinson finally perked up. "Ah, yes, that's brilliant!"  
  
Sarah stuck her tongue out at Hilary, who grumbled something and looked away. She sat down beside Kenny. "What's so great about her uncle?"  
  
"Sarah's uncle is Boris Balkov, president of the Biovolt Corporation in Russia. Remember when Kai was talking about Gilepse? Well, Boris and Gilepse were old college buddies until they had a fight and started their own companies—Biovolt and Goadbwa. And that pretty much explains everything—Gilepse, Vitality Extortion, soul stealing, the Prophecy, the Hilanovs..."  
  
"Prophecy?"  
  
"Yes," he continued. "The Hilanov Prophecy was in a tomb under Balkov Abbey and it foretold that Kai, Tala, and Sarah would be the ones to overcome Goadbwa Enterprises, and they did. It had to do with their personalities, physical appearance, and blood lines. Their last names—Hiwatari, Langley and Romanov made up the name Hilanov."  
  
"Hold on—Tala?"  
  
"He lives at Balkov Abbey, which is where Mr. Dickinson is trying to call now. Don't worry, though—I'm sure you'll get your chance to meet him at this rate."  
  
Mr. Dickinson had got through at last. "Ah, hello, Boris...Why thank you, but we've more pressing matters to discuss. Have you by any chance been visited by Vitality Extortion? ...Exactly what I said when I saw it...On TV of course...I saw a report last night that said Vitality Extortion had been massacring Russia, so I knew in an instant that they had been looking for you. But you say there has been no sign of activity yet?"  
  
The Bladebreakers and Celestial Myriad waited patiently for him to finish the call.  
  
"No, we haven't noticed anything that might hint towards Goadbwa, except for an incident two weeks ago..." Boris replied.  
  
"What incident would this be?" Mr. Dickinson asked suspiciously, his voice staticky over the long distance phone line.  
  
"We had two experiments going, and four teenagers dressed in black took one of them. They started a small fire in the Abbey and knocked some of us out, including Tala who managed to save the other one from being taken."  
  
"What experiments were these?"  
  
"Beyblading..." Boris answered somewhat hesitantly to try to cover up the lie. "But...nothing to really worry about..."  
  
"My point of this conversation would be, 'Is Tala ready for battle?' I suppose," Mr. Dickinson continued.  
  
"Of course he is, but why should I speak when you can talk to him? Let me just get him..." Boris put down the phone and walked to the door to use the intercom. "Irina?"  
  
"Yes, sir?"  
  
"I want you to find Tala and send him to my office right now, please."  
  
"Right away, sir."  
  
Boris went back and sat down at his desk, drumming his fingers and waiting for the boy to arrive.  
  
Irina scanned the schedule as she hastened down the stone halls. "Let's see...1:00 PM to 3:00 PM...That would put the senior division in training today. Just as I thought."  
  
She pushed the wooden door open with a single thrust and her high- heels clicked as she moved down the cobblestone steps of the courtyard. There were dozens of trainees standing in rows, each pulling rip chords in unison. As she approached Ilya, the one in charge of the Beyblade training, he turned to her and nodded. "Good afternoon, Irina."  
  
"Yes, good afternoon. I need to borrow Tala for a minute. Boris would like a word with him."  
  
Ilya was silent for a moment. "Sorry, Irina. I was hoping you knew where he was, because he certainly isn't here with me. Apparently he hasn't been seen since lunch yesterday. His roommates said that he wasn't in the dorm, so he isn't sick. We don't know where he is."  
  
Irina's jaw dropped. "What? Why wasn't this announced sooner?!"  
  
"We were hoping that he would turn up, but as you can see..."  
  
Irina put her head in her hands and shook it. "Boris isn't going to like this..."  
  
Mr. Dickinson had to hold the receiver away from his ear at the sudden yelling heard over the other end of the line. He eventually brought his head back as Boris spoke calmly once more. But what the man had to say made Mr. Dickinson gasp.  
  
The others looked at each other warily as he continued to listen.  
  
"Tala's missing?!" exclaimed Mr. Dickinson.  
  
Sarah and Kai looked to each other with worried expressions.  
  
"He ran away from the Abbey?! Oh...yes...yes, Boris...This is terrible! We can only pray...yes...Well, I would like you to come to Japan, anyway. We may have a use for you. Yes... Good day." With that, he sighed and put down the phone.  
  
"Where's Tala?" questioned Max.  
  
Mr. Dickinson shook his head. "No one knows. He's somewhere in Russia, we think, which means we can only hope that Vitality Extortion doesn't find him first. But that's not all—Boris also said that they were now missing two of their highly valuable Beyblading experiments. Goadbwa has one, and it is assumed that Tala has the other, wherever he is."  
  
"Oh no..." was all they could murmur.  
  
Mr. Dickinson raised his head and stood up, a determined face suddenly appearing. "Bladebreakers—Are Kane and Jim still around?"  
  
They looked at each other. "They should be," said Kenny. "I can contact them easily if you want me to. What should I tell them?"  
  
"Tell them all about the Hilanovs and the preceding war and that we would need their help in the upcoming one."  
  
"Should I also tell them to talk to Goki and Salima?" Kenny asked as he opened Dizzi and began to type.  
  
"Yes." Mr. Dickinson turned to Max, Ray, Hilary, Tyson, and Kai. "Do any of you know where the Saint Shields are?"  
  
"I could find them," Ray offered. "I tell them the same thing, right?"  
  
Mr. Dickinson nodded and focussed on Max. "Max, I want you to contact your mother in America and inform her of all that will be going on. Tell her we could use help. I'll provide a bail for Alan if we need to."  
  
"You got it, Mr. D!"  
  
"Now, I'll get Zaggart, Gordo and Zeo for help. I know that my old colleague will be willing. Then, that leaves King and Queen—"  
  
"I'll handle them," Kai sighed, stepping forward.  
  
"I want you to take care of your sister, Kai. Leave King and Queen to Tyson and Hilary," Mr. Dickinson replied sternly.  
  
"I assume that you want my brother to help, too?" Sarah asked.  
  
Mr. Dickinson nodded once more. "Now, there is much to do. All of you, you know your tasks and I would like you to get started on them. I shall call a meeting soon and prepare in the meantime," he finished, ushering them out of his office.  
  
"Tala, I'm hungry..."  
  
"Shh!"  
  
Tatiana peered her head around the corner along with Tala, but he pushed her head back around and turned violently to her. "Look! We've go to be careful! I told you not to come. I never should've taken you in the first place..." he trailed off.  
  
"What are you so worried about? We're outside of the Abbey!" Tatiana whispered back angrily.  
  
Tala lowered his face to hers. "If I know Boris, he'll be sending guards after us to comb the city, so we've gotta get outta Moscow before we're caught!"  
  
Tatiana closed her mouth and looked around, rather stunned. But Tala continued. "They'll drag us right back to the Abbey if they find us, and I've got some people to find!"  
  
"So then..." Tatiana began, becoming serious about it. "How are we going to get out of Moscow? And who are these people that you've gotta find?"  
  
Tala went back to surveying for Biovolt guards. "We're taking a plane to Japan—hopefully that's where he'll be, at least."  
  
"Japan? Do you have the tickets? Who's 'he'?"  
  
"No, we're stowing away. Come on," he said, grabbing her arm firmly without looking back and rushing out into the streets.  
  
===========  
  
Whew! Longer than I thought it would be! I had to cut out parts from my original plot so as not to make it too long. And goo news is that now, at least, Sonic has become an equal balance, so I'll be able to update more often (especially with the summer ----- IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! ). Please review! I want your opinion, flame or candy! 


	5. The Deploy Dilemma

I have a confession to make...I didn't watch V-Force in its entirety...sob... So if something happened to a certain person and they're alive and kicking in here, sorry...I only caught a comment later made about him and didn't see what had actually happened to him...(You'll find out who once you read the chap [If I made the mistake, that is])  
  
5. The Deploy Dilemma  
  
"As you probably know, I have called you all here today to discuss a rather disturbing matter..." Mr. Dickinson announced to those seated at the large table of the conference room. He motioned for Kenny to turn on the slide projector and watched the screen that had been behind him as an aerial image of Russia appeared. He turned back to the group. "Exhibit A—the country of Russia. Recently it has come under the attack of three fourteen year olds by the names of Spica Hyakutake, Kuiper Varuna, and Telesto Cibaru, also known as Vitality Extortion. Vitality Extortion was the mascot team for a company known as Goadbwa Enterprises, or Genesis of Apocalyptic Defeat Beyblading Weapon Artillery. However, this was a year ago. Now, it just so happened that a year ago the two companies of Goadbwa and Biovolt had a war break out between them and they sent the Hilanovs and Vitality Extortion to do their fighting. The Hilanovs were also a group of three Beybladers, but unlike Vitality Extortion, they were foretold to fight from a Prophecy found in a tomb under the headquarters of Biovolt. The Hilanovs were selected because of their personalities, appearances, and blood. The three chosen to lead the war against Goadbwa were Kai Hiwatari, Sarah Langley, and Tala Romanov, who is not with us today."  
  
"May I ask a question, sir?" King asked, raising his hand almost politely.  
  
"Why, yes, what is it?" Mr. Dickinson questioned curtly.  
  
King stood up and slapped his hands against the table. "Why do we need to know all of this? Could you please just cut to the chase? Queen and I have better things to do if this doesn't interest us."  
  
"This is a matter that concerns the fate of the world. We came to you two because we recognized your skills as Beybladers and were hoping that you could help, but if you feel that it would be a waste of your time, you are more than welcome to leave."  
  
King looked to Queen, who gave a short, "hmph" and slumped back in her chair, arms folded.  
  
Mr. Dickinson smiled as King sat back down quietly. "Thank, you King and Queen." But then he turned as he heard the squeak of chairs from the other side of the table.  
  
"Though King and Queen want to help, the Saint Shields would rather not. At least not with rules and regulations like this. If you need help, we'll give it to you, but later. We're on a mission and we can't help right now," Ozuma declared before turning and leaving the room without another word. The other three seemed hesitant to leave, but eventually followed their leader, nodding their apologies as they left.  
  
Mr. Dickinson sighed. "If there is anyone else in this room that feels they don't want to participate, please speak now or forever hold your peace." He glanced around, to see no hands appear or anyone stand up, and so he went back to his explanation.  
  
Tala strode through the doors to the airport proudly, holding his meagre baggage and looking peculiar compared to the crowd. Tatiana followed closely behind, not holding anything as she hadn't the time to pack before she left.  
  
Tala kept his eyes open for a departure board as he explored the airport until he finally found what he was looking for. A plane left Moscow for Tokyo in two hours. He had that long to buy food for the two of them to last out the trip and try to squeeze on the plane without being noticed. He looked down as he suddenly felt Tatiana tugging at his sleeve.  
  
"Hey, Tala! Look! The plane's taking off!"  
  
He followed her captivated gaze to the window and saw the nose rise, then the rest of the plane along with it. He made a small gulp. He had no idea how long the ride would be, or even if they'd make it to the end. He'd never been on a plane before—never been outside of Russia. He didn't know what to expect.  
  
"Come on, Tatiana—we've got to go get food." He said calmly, pulling his sleeve from her grip.  
  
"Oh! I want a huge—"  
  
"For the plane ride. Tatiana—you're going to have to learn to control what you eat. I don't know how long the ride's going to be and how long it'll take to find the Biovolt Japan Headquarters, so we're going to have to ration our food."  
  
"That's not fair!"  
  
"I told you not to come," he replied passively, turning away and starting to walk.  
  
Tatiana ran after him and stuck to him like glue. She didn't say a word as they entered a small convenience store and he purchased the essentials using some roubles he had stolen from the Abbey. He felt guilty about it all, but Boris would have never allowed him to do such a thing.  
  
Everyone filed out of the conference room. The Celestial Myriad stared at the unfamiliar people as they passed by, until two of them breached the pattern. Elvin nudged Sarah's elbow and grinned as Kane and Jim passed them.  
  
"Finally! Someone we know!" Eva exclaimed, not catching on to what Elvin was hinting at. "How are you two doing?" she asked, stepping in front of them.  
  
The two boys looked back, confused, but then recognition dawned on them. "Eva! Hi!" cried Kane. "How's the Beyblading coming?"  
  
"Great! But...where are...uh..." she started to stutter. "What are their names again?"  
  
"Salima and Goki?" Jim offered.  
  
"Yeah—those two..."  
  
Philemon came up behind her and slapped her on the back. "You'll have to forgive Eva, she's not so good with names. Not much else, either."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Salima and Goki are travelling," clarified Jim. "After our battle with the Bladebreakers, Team Psykick split up. Kane and I stayed here in Japan to improve our skills while Goki and Salima hopped on a plane to teach kids around the world how to Beyblade."  
  
"That's so cool," Eva said in acknowledgement.  
  
"What's Team Psykick?" Philemon asked.  
  
Sarah watched the four talking warily, Elvin tugging at her arm. "Come on, Sarah! You can't hide forever! Just go...You know you want to!"  
  
Sarah stayed rooted to the spot. "No, that's okay...I don't want to be a burden." Just then, the Bladebreakers passed by. She freed herself of Elvin's grip and left to talk to them. Defeated, Elvin joined the rest of his team with Kane and Jim.  
  
Hearing footsteps behind him, Kai stopped and turned around. "Sarah."  
  
"Yes?" she replied, stopping beside him.  
  
"Nothing," he answered, looking away again.  
  
"So...Ready to do this all over again?"  
  
"I guess."  
  
"I wonder where Tala is...Is he alright...will he be alright..." she pondered aloud.  
  
Kai continued walking again. "If I know Tala, he'll be fine. He's been in stickier situations."  
  
She watched him depart silently, feeling completely ignored before shuffling back to her team. Eva noticed her and slung an arm around her shoulder. "Hey! We were just talking about you! Time for your reunion with Kane and Jim!"  
  
"Don't you mean anniversary?" Philemon jested.  
  
Kane laughed. "How many times do I have to tell you it was for good luck?"  
  
"Kane's letter said to meet him at the BBA Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan."  
  
Goki looked up to the departure board of the waiting room as Salima finished speaking. "We're right on time. The next plane leaves Moscow for Tokyo in an hour. We'd better get our luggage on the plane, then."  
  
Salima nodded, folding up the map and piece of paper and stuffing it in her backpack. She followed Goki through the airport.  
  
Tala watched as the luggage carousels spun around slowly. As Tatiana caught up to him, she began to stare as well.  
  
"What are those, Tala?"  
  
"They're luggage carousels. They deliver the luggage to the plane." They would have no need of it, though. They hardly had any luggage, only a backpack that Tala had. Thinking that it would be difficult to somehow get to the luggage department of the plane through here, he decided to abandon the idea. The luggage would have to be handled before it went on the plane, and there wasn't exactly a way to get past that as two humans.  
  
Then, he saw it. A huge trunk marked fragile that a person in the crowd was holding, and it was marked with a large label, "TOKYO". What a stroke of luck! It had to be going on the carousel that was loading their plane. If only he and Tatiana could somehow get a hold of that case...  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
Tala turned around to see a girl and a boy around his age standing, eyes full of amazement. The boy was tall with black hair and brown eyes while the girl had long red hair and blue eyes—like a Hilanov. She instantly reminded him of Anya.  
  
"Are you Tala Romanov?" the girl asked.  
  
Tala's eyes widened. 'Oh no!' he panicked. 'How does she know me? What if she's form the Abbey?' "Uh...no," he stammered. "My name is...uh, Vasily...yeah, that's it."  
  
"Vasily? You must be Russian, then?" the boy replied.  
  
Tala nodded, trying not to say anything he didn't have to.  
  
Both the girl and the boy looked sullen. "Oh...Too bad. You looked so much like Tala...the great Hilanov Beyblader!" the girl said.  
  
"Great Hilanov Beyblader? How do you know?" Tala repeated, relaxing slightly.  
  
"It was broadcast all over the TV and newspapers last year—Biovolt's war against Goadbwa, remember?" the boy asked.  
  
Tala made a face as if trying to remember. "Oh yeah—I remember that! The war because Goadbwa wanted to use human souls as Bit Beasts because they were more powerful!"  
  
"Really?" the boy and the girl asked in unison.  
  
"They never said what the war was about," added the boy.  
  
Tala slapped a hand to his mouth. "At least, I think I read that somewhere..."  
  
The girl smiled and extended her hand. "You seem like a nice guy, anyway, Vasily. My name's Salima and this is Goki."  
  
Goki waved. "Pleased to meet you." He gestured towards Tatiana. "Who's this? Your little sister?"  
  
"No, he's my da—"  
  
Tala slapped a hand to her mouth. "This is Lyuba, my...sister, yes."  
  
Salima examined Tatiana more closely. "Funny, she seems to more be your daughter than your sister."  
  
"What?"  
  
"She just has that...look. You don't seem to share the same mother..."  
  
"I'm not—"Tatiana began.  
  
"Rest assured, she's my annoying little sister!" Tala interrupted, squeezing her cheeks roughly.  
  
"So, where are you headed?" Goki asked, changing the subject.  
  
"Tokyo," Tatiana replied. Tala slapped a hand to his forehead.  
  
Sailma's eyes lit up. "Really? So are we! We've been called to see our friends about a matter concerning the Hilanovs as a matter of fact."  
  
This piqued Tala's interest. "Do you know for what?"  
  
"Nope, not a clue," Goki shook his head. "They only told us that it was important. If you were Tala, however, you'd know, wouldn't you? And you'd be in Japan along with Sarah and Kai instead of here in Russia." Goki looked to his watch. "Well, Sal, our plane leaves in half an hour. We'd better get boarding."  
  
They shook hands with Tala once more before they waved and left. Tala continued to stare into space for a moment, transfixed by what information he had just learnt and his two opportunities that had just walked away from him. He snapped out of his daydream when he felt Tatiana pulling his sleeve again.  
  
"Tala! Tala! That luggage you were staring at! The man's loading it now!"  
  
Tala whipped back around. Sure enough, the man was lifting it to the carousel. "We need a diversion..." he said quietly.  
  
"A Beyblade," Tatiana suggested. "But I can't use mine, and you don't want to use yours, either, do you?"  
  
"I have an extra Beyblade in here," he said, flinging his bag off his back and pulling out a red blade. He pulled out his shooter as well and fired. "Get that trunk off the carousel!" he ordered Tatiana.  
  
Sure enough, the destructive Beyblade was catching people's attention. The man had just left the loading room and so Tatiana and Tala rushed over to the heavy baggage, unstrapped it and unloaded it, shoving the contents under the carousel and climbing inside, Tala leaving the extra Beyblade to wrack havoc on the room. There had been a blanket covering the single object that had been in the case, and Tala and Tatiana pulled it over them as they squished together inside it.  
  
"Tala?"  
  
"Yes!" he whispered feverishly.  
  
"How are we gonna close this thing?"  
  
Just then, then felt the trunk tip upwards and heard someone talking as the lid shut tightly. "Now how'd you get off the carousel? You've gotta get to Tokyo, now. No more jumping attempts!" the man said playfully to his suitcase as he set it back on the belt.  
  
Curled up with Tatiana, he could feel her heavy breathing against his neck. "Don't breathe so much!" he scolded. "We've got a limited air supply! Unless..." He fumbled around for his bag, then reached into a side pocket and pulled out a small pocket knife—just another one of the many 'borrowed' possessions.  
  
He reached over Tatiana and drove the tip of the knife into what he hoped was the side of the trunk. He kept grinding at the tough material until the blade slid right through—he had made a small hole. But there was no light coming through—they had to still be on the conveyor belt—he could still feel the movement. As that had worked, he moved the knife to make another hole in the same way he had before. Then, just as he had finished the second hole and drew the knife in, light poured through the holes. The trunk was lifted from the belt and set down gently, as the label had asked. But no sooner had they been set down then they were picked up again, more roughly this time, and they felt the movement of some sort of a car.  
  
Tala strained to see out through the small holes, each about a centimetre in diameter. "Question now is, how do we get out of here?" he breathed.  
  
"Tala?"  
  
"What now?"  
  
"I have to go to the bathroom..."  
  
"We don't have time to wait. We must commence our attack now," Mr. Dickinson told Sarah and Kai.  
  
The two were still busy gawking at the new uniforms they wore. There was a base jumpsuit. Kai's was blue and had three black horizontal stripes; one at the neck, one across his upper chest which also followed under his arms, and one across his lower chest. There were also vertical black stripes on the inside of the legs. Sarah's uniform was purple with a single silver stripe on her upper chest that followed under her arms and the same vertical stripes on the inside of the legs. Also on their chest was a single vertical breast plate that started at their turtleneck and went down the middle of their chest, held up by a new style of armour. Kai's breastplate was black, Sarah's silver. The new abdominal armour had a front and back plate, a slightly different shade of their primary and the two plates were connected by tubal lining of Kai's and Sarah's shade. They had elbow pads of their respective shade, black gloves with white lining and silver wristguards and black boots with white linings and silver ankle rings. They had knee pads, shin guards, and soles of the same shade as the front and back of their abdominal armour. (A/N: By now, you should know that their primary colours are Kai—blue, Sarah—purple, and Tala—red. Their shades are Kai—black, Sarah—grey, and Tala—white.)  
  
"And even if only two of the Hilanovs are here, you should be okay. They're not going to be that difficult on the first battle—I can almost guarantee that," Mr. Dickinson continued. "But, nonetheless, I have two others to help you in the fight. We're trying to find a replacement in case Tala doesn't turn up."  
  
"Please don't say that, Mr. Dickinson," Kai said simply, giving the same cold scowl as always.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kai."  
  
"Who are these two replacements, then?" asked Sarah.  
  
Mr. Dickinson motioned to the doorway as two boys clad in uniforms stepped in. "We have selected Wyatt and Kane as Tala's replacements according to the closest matches with the Prophecy. As they were some of the first ones to be tested and questioned, they were the first to be turned up. Not everyone that agreed to participate has been checked to see if they're a suitable replacement yet."  
  
Kane's uniform had red and white as the colour and shade with two horizontal stripes across the chest. Wyatt had the same two horizontal stripes, but his uniform was green and white instead. Wyatt looked to Kai and beamed, eager to contribute. Kane had the same serious face and seemed wary.  
  
"Kane has blue eyes, and is always honest and confident. His last name, Rotanev, is also very similar to that of Romanov," Mr. Dickinson illuminated. "Wyatt, on the other hand, has the same personality traits and has a trace of DNA from the Hilanov bloodline. Hopes are high for him." He surveyed the three standing before him before turning on his heel and leading them up to the roof. "You shall now board a helicopter that will take you to a small village in Russia where Vitality Extortion was last believed to have struck. Good luck and goodbye," he finished as he opened the door to the roof.  
  
A helicopter hovered, gearing to go.  
  
Suddenly Sarah froze, staring at Mr. Dickinson in fear and surprise.  
  
"You're so pale! You look like you've just seen a ghost!" exclaimed Wyatt over the roar of the blades.  
  
Sarah shook her head and looked to Mr. Dickinson again. 'I swear I saw two of Mr. Dickinson standing there a moment ago...' She heard a familiar laugh echo through her head and shook it again. "I think I did, Wyatt..."  
  
"Come on! We don't have time to waste!" yelled Kai, grabbing Sarah's arm and yanking her across the landing platform.  
  
The rotor blades spun in a blur and whatever Mr. Dickinson said next was drowned out as they ran towards the helicopter and climbed up the rope ladder. Mr. Dickinson waved from the launch pad as they rose into the air and began to ascend the ladder.  
  
For most of the trip, everyone had remained silent. Kane then looked to Sarah on his left. "Back before we left, Wyatt mentioned something about a ghost and you answered yes. What was that about?"  
  
Sarah became transfixed by the floor. "I was watching Mr. Dickinson as he spoke, then suddenly another Mr. Dickinson stepped out from behind him and scowled at me. When I blinked, however, he was gone."  
  
Kai continued to stare out the window, arms folded, unfazed. "You've been undergoing a lot of stress lately, or so I've heard. It's probably just your mind playing tricks on you."  
  
She raised her head to him as he sat across from her. "I'm...not so sure..."  
  
"We're here," the pilot announced as the helicopter began to descend.  
  
They each leapt out of the plane in turn, eyes peeled and Beyblades safely in their belts for quick arming.  
  
"I'll be here for when you get back," the pilot informed before shutting the cockpit door.  
  
"Let's go," Kai ordered, taking charge and starting to walk. The others followed suite. "And keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious."  
  
As it had been in the plane, they walked in silence down a long, wide path. There were tall deciduous trees on either side and the foliage was thick, making for the perfect ambush. There was no one around and it was unusually quiet—no birds chirping, no other sounds of the forest.  
  
"I thought Russia was supposed to be cold," Wyatt wondered aloud at last.  
  
"Not all of it is. We must be in the more southern region where it is warmer," Kai answered.  
  
"Hey! Look! Up ahead!" exclaimed Kane as they all came to a stop to squint straight ahead.  
  
"Civilization!" cried Sarah, rushing past them and towards the tiny village. When she reached it, however, her heart sank.  
  
The small village of rickety wooden houses now lay in smoulders. A rotting stench filled her nose—the same smell that had been on the final battlefield when it was all over. Bodies were strewn out over the dirt everywhere as were prized possessions—a hat, cookware, and...a doll. Sarah knelt down and picked up the doll at her feet, examining the craftsmanship that had gone to waste.  
  
Kai appeared at her side. "What is it?"  
  
She stood back up again and held it out to him. On seeing it, he sighed and looked to Kane and Wyatt, who were also sifting through the wreckage.  
  
Wyatt picked up a ten-gallon hat and turned it around. "Did Vitality Extortion do this?"  
  
"This is horrible," agreed Kane.  
  
Kai watched smoke wisps rise from a piece of wood that still had a spark alight. "Don't let your guard down just yet. This disaster is fresh, so whoever did this, Vitality Extortion or not, is probably still around here. They could be—"  
  
"Sh!"  
  
Kai whipped around to Sarah. "I'm just warning them!"  
  
"No! I heard something!" she whispered angrily before closing her eyes to concentrate. A moment later, she turned back to the path they had come from. "There!"  
  
The other three turned as well to see four figures approaching them. Kai growled and raised his Beyblade to fire, but the middle figure raised his hands to show he was unarmed—for the moment.  
  
"Ah, Hilanovs. So good to see you again," Telesto said with a smirk.  
  
"But where's the third stooge?" asked Kuiper.  
  
"So you're Vitality Extortion, huh?" Kane said as he stepped forward.  
  
Telesto nodded. "The one and only. But who are you?"  
  
"My name is Kane and this over here is Wyatt. I thought there were only three of you?"  
  
The three looked to their newest member, a young boy. He looked to be about seven. He had a style more like Wyatt's, but with the two different shades like Kai. He had grey eyes and a vertical red triangle on either cheek just below his eye. He wore a uniform like the other three—high- necked shirt with a triangle from either shoulder down to the middle, belt with the Goadbwa logo, pants and knee-high boots with the same triangle. The logo was also on the left breast of their shirt, along with shoulder pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and gloves. The shoulder pads and boots were black and white on all three and most of everything else was of their primary colour (A/N: Spica—purple, black, Kuiper—white, blue, Telesto—red, grey). This boy's uniform was black and red—Goadbwa's colours.  
  
"There were," Telesto began with a dismissive hand. "But meet our newest accomplice, Kazu."  
  
"Kazu?" Kai heard Sarah repeat softly.  
  
Spica drew her Beyblade and shooter. "Can we waste time on pleasantries later, please? We've got a score to settle with the Hilanovs, remember?"  
  
"Right," the other three agreed as they drew their blades.  
  
"Kai!" Kai whirled around on hearing a gasp and his name from Sarah.  
  
"What? What is it!"  
  
"There's more of them, now!"  
  
Kai looked back to Vitality Extortion. "Yeah, they've got Kazu. So? We have four on our side as well."  
  
"No, I mean that another Spica, Telesto, and Kuiper just stepped out form the bushes! They're standing, ready to fire as well! Can't you see them?!"  
  
Kai glanced at them again and saw the same as before. "No. You're seeing things again. Stop making excuses and just fight."  
  
"But—"  
  
It was too late. Kai raised his blade and fired. Wyatt followed his example and did the same. Kane watched her for a moment, trying to decide what to do. She noticed this and turned to him. "Can you see them?"  
  
"Sorry, I've no idea what you're talking about. I only see two left—Kazu and Spica, I think their names are?"  
  
"Which one'll you take?"  
  
Kane glared them over again. "I think I can handle Spica."  
  
"You think I'm not strong enough to handle someone my own age?" Sarah asked jokingly as she raised her shooter.  
  
"Maybe," Kane replied, firing. "Wouldn't want you to strain yourself too much."  
  
Sarah clicked her tongue and fired at the young boy. Glancing back up at where Vitality Extortion had been standing, she noticed that the doubles had disappeared. She quickly surveyed the area before being drawn into the fight with Kazu.

=========

That's it for now. Please review!


	6. A Second Chance For A First Impression

6. A Second Chance For A First Impression

"A complete search of the Abbey and surrounding city has turned up nothing, sir. We talked to locals, transportation agencies, even filed a missing persons report with the police, and nothing turned up whatsoever," reported Nikita.

Boris sighed and shook his head. "Triple checks have been run?" 

Nikita nodded. "Quadruple. We're doing our best, sir, but unless he left the country somehow, there's no plausible explanation. He couldn't have vanished into thin air."

"My son...My baby...The only one I had left..."

Boris turned as Lutka sauntered up to him, her hands held out in front of her as if searching for something with a confused and dazed look on her face. He looked back to Nikita. "Keep up the search for them. If they're not found within two hours time, I'm leaving for Japan without them. Though I'm gone, I want the search continued until something is found. No matter what."

"Japan awaits your arrival, Boris. I just finished talking to Haku and everything is ready at the Ikoru Headquarters," explained Irina as she rushed up to Boris. "The chopper is also ready for take off."

"Tell the pilot to postpone the take-off for another hour or two. We're still looking for Tala and Tatiana."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"Like this," Sarah instructed. "Just relax, the tension will go away after a while." 

"Just relax..." Hilary repeated to herself, letting out a deep breath. "Hey, this is cool! I can't believe I'm actually getting into this."

Sarah caught her blade as it flew out of the dish to watch Hilary's blade speed around in circles. "I'm surprised you took to it so quickly."

Hilary eyed her red blade, not taking her eyes off it to talk. "You underestimated me."

Sarah folded her arms and smirked. "But you still don't have a Bit Beast."

Hilary finally took her eyes off her blade to thrust her angered face into Sarah's. "Yeah? Well, I'll get one, don't you worry! Then I'll teach the teacher!"

Sarah waved her hand dismissively. "Um-hm. Whatever. Check your blade and tell that to my face again?"

Surprised, Hilary looked back to the dish to see that her Beyblade had spun to a stop. "What? It was going strong a few moments ago!"

Sarah smiled again and placed her arms akimbo. "The number one rule in blading is to always focus. If you lose your concentration, your blade loses power."

Hilary stepped down into the dish and picked up the red blade, regarding it sullenly. Her face twisted into a frown. "You think you're so hot, don't you?"

Sarah looked away and stuck her nose up prissily. "I'm only what others make of me."

"Oh really?"

"That's what I like to believe."

Kenny shook his head. "It seems that Hilary has finally met her match."

"But something tells me that eventually they'll stop fighting and be the best of friends, Chief," replied Dizzi.

Kenny kept his post at the doorway, having passed by the training room and heard the argument. He smiled as he watched them yell at each other. "You really think so? They're really going at each other's throats."

"Positive. Now, didn't you have something else you were supposed to do? Such as see Mr. Dickinson about the report?" asked Dizzi annoyedly.

"Yeah, yeah!" Kenny sighed, hurrying off with Dizzi clutched firmly in his hands.

* * *

"Kai...?" 

Kai raised his head on hearing the boy utter his name.

"What happened to me?"

Kai reached for Wyatt's hand and clasped it firmly. "You were overpowered during the battle."

"What?"

"Kuiper got you pretty good. He smashed your blade and then took your soul," Kai explained bluntly.

"What's that mean? He took my soul?"

Kai took his hand from Wyatt's and leant back in the chair. "It's a long story..." They both looked up as Mr. Dickenson entered the room.

Mr. Dickenson stepped up to the infirmary bed where Wyatt lay with Kai at his side. "Good to see you awake, Wyatt. How are you feeling?"

Wyatt struggled to sit up, and succeeded. "Fine, thank you."

"I have brought good news and bad news," Mr. Dickenson went on, becoming sober.

"I'll take the good, first, please..."

Kai cast a wary sideglance at the old man.

"Then, the good news is that I must say you fought very well for your first battle with a powerful and dangerous team. You exceeded our expectations. But, the bad news—we are discontinuing your use as a deploy."

Wyatt fingered the bandages on his arm. "May I ask why?"

Mr. Dickenson looked to the window on his right. "Of course. I'm sorry to say, that though you fought well, you didn't fight well enough. We don't believe that you would be able to stand the pressures of another battle like that. Besides, your condition would definitely hamper your performance."

"Oh..." Wyatt muttered, dropping his head.

"We have found a replacement for you, and are keeping Kane as a deploy."

"Who will Wyatt's replacement be?" Kai asked, standing up.

Mr. Dickenson locked eyes with Kai. "Hilary."

* * *

Tala took a deep breath as he managed to break open the case. He had cut the belts that tied it, but they could easily salvage someone else's in a pinch. He knocked the top of the case off and got out, stretching his legs as soon as his feet were on the solid ground. He turned and watched as Tatiana mimicked him. He narrowed his eyes as she cast him an innocent glance. 

"I'm sorry, Tala," she apologized. She finally seemed to realize that she was a nuisance. She just had to pull at his strings...

Tala paced through the cargo hold, not bothering to reply. "Ok. Now, this hold isn't pressurized. However, fortunately for us, there is a door leading to the main part of the plane. The only thing is, it goes through the stewardess area. With any luck, there'll be a washroom we can pretend to be coming back from, and she won't ask to see our tickets." He stopped and turned to glare at her. "Let ME do all the talking, Tatiana."

She hung her head and turned her head away. He didn't pause to console her. He just didn't have the patience for kids, especially ones like this. He brushed past her and towards the door leading to the stewardess area. Opening the door slightly, he peered around. There was no one nearby, so he slipped through and closed it as Tatiana followed closely behind him. They both scurried through the tiny preparation area and entered the passenger area of the plane.

Tala noticed a steward heading down their pathway towards them. The two had minimal time to find vacant seats. His eyes darted back and forth across the many passengers. The plane was packed, it seemed. Not a single seat seemed free, and the steward was quickly approaching. Tala's heart raced. He checked behind him to see Tatiana sullenly following him.

"Are you okay, young man?"

Tala turned on hearing an older woman's voice. She looked up at him with concern on noticing his frustrated body language. "Yeah, thanks...Just kinda forgot where my seat was, that's all," he blushed slightly on fabricating the lie so well. He was getting good at this...But then it was too late to regain his composure as the steward was now upon him and Tatiana.

"May I help you, sir?" the uniformed man asked. "We are about to take off, and you must get to your seat. May I see your ticket?"

Crud. What now? Tala asked himself. "I--...I...Sure! Erm...Just lemme look for it..." He began to pat the pockets on his bolero and pants, pretending to look for his ticket.

"Here they are."

Tala turned to see Tatiana holding out two plane tickets to the man. She had a solemn face. "My brother's a bit absent-minded at times, so he asked me to take care of them."

The steward took the tickets from her tiny hand as Tala gawked in astonishment. "Ah yes, ok. You're in the first class, so that's at the front of the plane. You passed it when you got on the plane."

He handed back the tickets to Tatiana and gave a courteous smile to Tala as he pushed past them. Tala was still in shock from what had just taken place before his eyes, and so Tatiana moved down the aisle without him. He finally snapped out of his trance and hurried down the aisle after the girl.

"How the heck did you do that?" he demanded, just trying to keep up. She walked quickly for someone so short.

"I knew we needed tickets, so I got them," she replied simply without facing him.

"How? Where'd you get the money?"

"I didn't."

"You stole them? How!" he whispered, trying not to be heard, though it was hard in the silence of the plane.

Tatiana finally found the seats and flopped in the one beside the window. "While you were paying for food for us, I found a wealthy couple who didn't want their tickets anymore. I tell you, I should be an actress when I grow up," she finished, finally breaking into a smile.

Tala sat down beside her, still amazed at this young girl's ability. He broke his contempt towards her by ruffling her hair. "I think we both can, once we get outta this mess."

* * *

"We leave in fifteen minutes." 

"Okay," Kai and Sarah said in unison. Sarah slipped on her glove and looked to Kai. He was occupied making last checks to his Beyblade.

"Kai?"

He raised his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

He nodded, not bothering to use a vocal reply.

"How's Dranzer?"

"Good," was his single-word reply.

He was so silent, all of a sudden. Why? What had happened to make him this way? Kai had always been very abrupt, but at least more courteous than he was being right now. Sarah drew a sharp breath, thinking maybe there was one thing that was bogging Kai down. "How's Wyatt?"

Bingo. He didn't reply, but simply glared at her with his slated eyes and turned away. He then went back to polishing Dranzer's shelter.

Sarah stepped forward. "Kai...I asked you a question."

Still no reply escaped his lips. However, he dropped his polishing hand to his side as he continued to stare at the red fire bird. Sarah moved to stand behind him. "It's really bugging you, isn't it? He didn't have the strength, but he'll be fine now..." She reached out and grasped his hand in hers.

Kai glanced downward, her hand clasped around his. For some reason, he found that more comforting than any other gesture possibly could. And that, he couldn't stand. He pulled away quickly and sauntered out of the room. No. No facing her. Wyatt was more of a concern.

Sarah's heart sank as she watched Kai rush away from her gloved hand. "Hmph..." She flopped down on the wooden chair behind her.

"Come on, Sarah."

Hilary stood before her, now, clad in her red uniform. "No one can really understand Kai, even after however long you've known him..."

Sarah rose and saw Kane glance at the two girls before he left the change room, following Kai down the hall. She scowled at Hilary. "I know. You don't have to tell me." She pushed past her, purposely knocking her on the shoulder.

Hilary stared after her, dazed for a moment. "Hey! I was only trying to help!"

* * *

They stepped off of the helicopter again. Kai glanced around the downtown Tokyo core. It was a familiar place to him, having come here many times as a child. Voltaire had often dragged him here to show the young prodigy off to business partners. 

Hilary, Sarah and Kane landed on the pavement, following suite. Hilary and Sarah still seemed somewhat miffed at each other, even though Kane had played negotiator throughout the whole trip.

The helicopter took off from the helipad, leaving the four standing alone on top of the building. Mr. Dickenson had ordered them to incapacitate, not harm or kill. If anything, the BBA needed to analyze Vitality Extortion's movements, not get rid of them entirely. Kai watched the streets for their movement, as they were last reported to be here. Though why in Tokyo and not Nagano, where the Goadbwa Japan Headquarters was? But then Kai realized—though the Goadbwa branch wasn't here, the Biovolt branch was. Vitex must have been looking for Tala or something more of Biovolt.

"We gonna stand here all day, or move out?" Sarah asked in an annoyed tone. She cast Kai a narrowed side glance.

Kai blinked and glared at her. "Can you be patient? We can't just charge in—we haven't even seen Vitex, yet." She had become a lot snippier since they last met.

"There!"

Kai and Sarah followed Hilary's outstretched hand to four figures lurking two blocks away. The four froze and turned to face the building where the Hilanovs were standing.

"We're spotted," Kane said softly, shifting uncomfortably. He reached for his shooter, but Kai shook his head.

"Don't. Watch them, first. Pay close attention to their movements, especially Kazu."

"Why?" asked Hilary, keeping her eyes on the four figures now advancing towards them.

"There's something different about Kazu," Sarah cut in, catching on to what Kai had been implying. "And something different about the rest of them, too. They're more..."

"Zombie-like," Kai finished. "It's really odd to describe, but you can see that they don't move like normal humans would."

"Right," Kane agreed. "Now that you mention it..."

"And as much as possible," Sarah continued, "Lead them to the edge of the city. We don't want any civilian casualties."

* * *

"Tally...You know I don't have parents, right?" Tatiana asked enthusiastically, but with some sadness at the same time. 

Tala opened his eyes, having nodded off slightly. They had been up in the air for at least two hours, and he figured that maybe he could catch up on a little sleep after all he had lost lately. But Tatiana had to come and ruin his dreams...He hadn't really heard what she said, but nodded anyway.

"Well, you know what? I think that you look a lot like my daddy."

Tala closed his eyes again. "Yeah...whatever..." he didn't care what she was saying. After she made a big fuss over her ears as they took off, he really wasn't up to deal with her high energy anymore. He had never been on a plane before, either, and found it much more relaxing compared to a helicopter. It was quieter, and he wanted to use the silence to sleep, not argue with the girl.

"So will you be my daddy?"

"Meh..." was Tala's reply. But then he jolted back awake. "What did you say? Me be your dad? You know, Tatiana, you're not just someone's person because you say you want to be."

"Really?"

"No, you—" he stopped himself. She didn't need to know yet. "No...It's a long and complicated process..." the explanation didn't make sense, but what did she know about it?

"But I want a dad..."

"Well, it's not me. And if you tell anyone that I am your dad," he began.

"Then what?"

"I'll...I'll..." He tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind.

"Well, then, you're my daddy unless you can think of something. That's my deal."

Tala searched his mind for something he could use as a threat. He had nothing she wanted, except his acceptance. "I'll disown you."

"Not good enough! You're my daddy!" She latched onto his arm. "So if you don't want me to call you Tally, I'm gonna call you daddy instead!"

Tala tried to shrug her off, shifting in his seat to try to get away without standing up. "No! Tatiana! I'm not your dad and you won't tell anyone that I am!"

"Awww! Why not?" she whined, burying her head in his chest.

"Because—" Tala was cut off by an announcement to start landing from the pilot.

"Yay! Japan, here we come!" exclaimed Tatiana.

Tala shrank into his seat. "Why me...?" Then sat bolt upright again. He remembered that it always hurt to ascend in a plane, but it hurt even more to come back down, especially if you weren't used to it. He swallowed as he felt his ears pop.

"Tally..." Tatiana began. "My ears...are starting...to hurt..."

Tala plugged his ears, bracing for her screech. "Great...Here we go again..."

* * *

The glass shattered upon impact. Shards were sent flying everywhere as he flew through the window and landed on the marble tile of the office building's lobby. All the white-shirt execs stopped with their business affairs to watch him come to and push himself up. 

Telesto shook his head to clear it and got to his feet. His grey Beyblade flew through the window after him, and landed at his feet as Kane leaped through the hole in the windows along with his own Beyblade. Telesto carefully picked glass shards from his uniform and skin, still recovering from being flung through the window.

"Hey, Telesto—Had enough yet?" Kane called, surveying the brown-haired boy.

"Not quite. But I'll bet you have," Telesto replied, ordering his Beyblade to charge forward. He cast his attention to the battle between the BBA deploy of the day and Kazu outside the building. The girl with the short brown hair seemed petrified to have to Beybattle, and judging from her attacks, she wasn't used to battling at all. Biovolt was getting more and more pathetic—first they lost Tala, and now they were sending new Beybladers to fight in a wide-scale war.

"What's your name?"

Hilary was taken aback by the question from the young boy, but answered anyway. "Hilary Tatibana...why?"

"I'm just curious. You seem so scared for one so old," was Kazu's cold reply.

"Well you seem too serious for one so young," Hilary countered, feeling more comfortable with verbal assaults. "Why are you fighting for Goadbwa, anyway? Don't you know that they're bad-guys?" Hilary asked in a sweet voice, as if coaxing a three-year-old. She figured that it would work on the seven-year-old boy as well.

"I don't need to be babied by you, and Goadbwa aren't the bad-guys!" Kazu yelled back. "Biovolt was the one that betrayed Goadbwa!"

Th line definitely sounded fake, like a practised phrase repeated when you didn't want to think for yourself. Hilary couldn't reply to the comment, however. She was unfamiliar with the war in the previous year, and maybe Biovolt and the BBA wanted to withhold information that Goadbwa didn't yet have. She decided to change the topic, instead. "Kazu, where do you come from?"

"From Goadbwa, of course," he responded abruptly, calling his blade back to his side, seeing that the girl didn't really want to battle. It could have been a trap, but Hilary didn't seem bright enough to him for that.

"No, I mean, who are your parents, what's your last name? That sorta thing." Noticing Kazu's withdrawal from battle, Hilary called back her red blade completely, displaying her preference not to battle.

Kazu narrowed his eyes at her and called back his Beyblade, as well, but fit it to his shooter again just in case. "I don't have parents, and my last name is Hiwatari."

Kai looked back on hearing his name. "What?"

Spica saw that Kai was distracted from their battle, and followed his gaze to where Kazu stared back innocently at her. She scowled at him, caught her blade in mid-air and stormed over to him. "What did you say, kid?" she scolded like an angered mother.

Kazu cowered away from her, wincing as she thrust her face in his. "Erm...Hilary asked for my last name...And so I told her..."

Spica raised her hand and slapped his cheek. The red stripes on his cheek had company as the imprint of the girl's hand appeared.

"Hiwatari?" Kai had come up behind Spica. "Is that his name?"

Spica whirled around and glowered back at Kai, the two nose and nose. She raised her head to lock eyes with him. "No."

"That's what I heard him say, and I don't think a child of his age would lie so innocently. And why would you be so defensive if that wasn't his name?"

"It's not his name!" Spica spat in Kai's face and grabbed Kazu's arm. She led him away, calling to Telesto and Kuiper. They looked up from their battle with Kane and Sarah, and caught their Beyblades. Without another word, the four tore away down the road.

"Hey! Come back!" Sarah yelled, beginning to chase after them.

"Sarah!"

She turned back around. Kai looked stunned, Hilary watching him, and Kane motioning for her to go to them. She jogged over. "What is it?"

Kai continued to watch Vitality Extortion's retreat. "Kazu said that his last name was Hiwatari."

"So?"

Kai quickly turned his head to scowl at her. "So that means something. I don't think that Kazu is an original Goadbwa trainee. It's too much of a coincidence."

"Kane told us to meet him at the BBA headquarters, right?" Goki asked, heading straight for the building.

"Yep," Salima answered as she slung her bag on her bag and rushed out the doors after Goki. "And right away, too. It's a good thing it's not far from the airport."

"I wonder what happened to those two Russian kids..." Goki pondered out loud.

"Who?" Salima managed through gasps for air as they both hopped into an awaiting taxi.

The taxi driver took off as soon as Salima told him where to go.

"Those two we saw in Moscow—one that looked like Tala and had a little sister that you thought was his daughter?"

Salima waded through her memory for a moment. "Oh yeah! I forgot about them...But now that you bring that back up...They were supposed to be heading for Tokyo, too, weren't they?"

"Yeah. Oh well...Guess they forgot about us."

They sat in silence for the next five minutes until the taxi cab came to a stop. Goki paid the driver the correct change and followed Salima out the door. They ran up the walkway leading to the front swivel doors and rushed through.

Mr. Dickenson, who had been standing at the front desk turned to see who had walked through the door. He took one look up and down Salima, who was out of breath and giving him a quizzical face back. The old man's face lit up. "You're perfect!"


End file.
